Published on OurFuture.org (http://www.ourfuture.org)

Health Insurance Facts At A Glance

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Since 2000, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance for families have increased by 87% (compared to 12% increase in inflation and 19% increase in annual wages.)
As of 2005, nearly 45 million Americans were totally uninsured of whom 8.3 million were children.
At least $286 billion, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to provide full health care coverage for everyone in the United States, is annually spent on paperwork by competing insurance companies.
In the first 6 months of 2005, HMOs banked profits of $6.98 billion. This was a 21.2% increase in profits over the same period a year earlier.5 The health services/HMO sector spent $32 million on lobbying between 2000 and 2006.
According to a June, 2006 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, seniors hit with a coverage gap like the Part D donut hole are 22% more likely to die than seniors who aren't forced to pay thousands in out-of-pocket expenses.
Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices would save $332 billion over 7 years, enough money to eliminate the donut hole entirely with no extra cost to taxpayers.

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[1] http://ourfuture.org