Fast Fact

More Uninsured Children

Terrance Heath — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:32:12 -0400

In 2006, 11.7% of children, or 8.7 million kids, went without health insurance. That's up from the previous year, when 10.9%, or 8 million children, were uninsured.

Americans Lack Health Insurance

Alex Carter — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:39:50 -0400

47 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2006, up from 38 million in 2000.

Bush's Medicare Drug Plan Leaves Millions Paying Higher

Armand Biroonak — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

President Bush’s push for further privatization of Medicare's prescription drug plan stuck 3.4 million Medicare beneficiaries with high drug costs.

Prohibition to Drug-Price Negotiate Costs Government Billions

Armand Biroonak — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Bush's Medicare prescription drug plan prohibits the federal government's ability to negotiate drug prices--costing the government an estimated $90 billion annually.

Bush Administration's Medicare Advantage Plan Costs Double

Armand Biroonak — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The Bush Administration’s privatized “Medicare Advantage” plans are rising twice as fast as costs in traditional Medicare, according to the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

Rising Health Care Costs are to Blame for Rising Medicare Cost

Armand Biroonak — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The Congressional Budget Office reports the main factor in the rising cost of Medicare is the growth of health care costs—health expenditures as a percent of GDP have more than doubled since 1970, growing from 7.0 percent to 14.8 percent in 2002.

McCain Plan Adds Tax to Employer-Sponsored Health Care Benefits

Alexander Sewell — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

McCain’s health plan will hit families with a huge new tax. Currently, employer-provided health care benefits are tax exempt, a longstanding policy that has saved families thousands of dollars and helped keep health care costs from spiraling out of control. McCain has promised to eliminate this tax break, a move that could add over $1,100 to the average family’s tax bill by 2013.

McCain Health Care Tax Places New Burden on Americans

Alexander Sewell — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The tax credit McCain claims will offset this new burden would rise only at the rate of inflation—not the rate of health care costs, which grow much more quickly—so that by 2018 a family earning $40,000 a year will be paying $2,800 in higher taxes, even with McCain’s tax credit.

The Devil's in the Details: McCain Health Care Plan May Cause Americans to Lose Health Care

Alexander Sewell — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The health care tax exemption does more than lower families’ tax burden; it also provides an incentive for businesses to offer health care benefits to their employees. Without the exemption, an estimated 11 million to 27 million people nationwide will lose their employer-sponsored health insurance. In the hardest-hit states— New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut—as many as 1 in every 6 currently-insured workers would lose their health care coverage.

McCain Health Care Plan Doesn't Work For The Sick

Alexander Sewell — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

McCain’s plan will sink anyone with a pre-existing condition. Plenty of families won’t be able to obtain health coverage at any price, since the McCain plan offers no protection for those with pre-existing conditions. That will allow insurers to refuse to cover an estimated 56 million people who have preexisting conditions such as cancer or diabetes