2008 Woodie Awards
Imagine your neighbor works five days a week. You know that he recently fell ill and isn’t earning enough to fully cover medical costs because he is uninsured, and you know he is sometimes giving up meals in order to buy much needed medication. What would you feel?
Now imagine there were 1 million of these people, and multiply that feeling by 1 million. Imagine 10 million, and do the same. What would you feel?
The truth is that around 45 million people are uninsured, many of whom come from poor, working class families. According to this US Census Bureau report (pg 15), 2/3 of the uninsured come from families with income less than $50,000 a year, a full one third of the uninsured come from families with incomes of less than $25,000 a year. While many are not constantly ill, there are those who cannot possibly afford treatment because of their low budgets– and there are many of them.
Many have pointed to expanding Medicare to cover those left out, Paul Krugman presents it comprehensively and simply here.:
We need to do this one right. If reform fails again, we’ll be on the way to a radically unequal society, in which all but the most affluent Americans face the constant risk of financial ruin and even premature death because they can’t pay their medical bills.
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