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Press Release August 10, 2000 |
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AUSTIN, TX - Two reports released nationally by
Consumers Union today document the failure of our nation's health
care system in alleviating the plight of the uninsured and point to
the dilemma faced by Texas and other states in closing the gaps
through a loose patchwork of programs.
The reports conclude that U.S. taxpayers are
not getting their money's worth for a failed system that features 44
million uninsured Americans and many more millions who are
underinsured. While the U.S. spends more money on health care than
any other country (13.7 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, or
GDP), all German consumers are covered for 10.5 percent of their GDP
and French consumers are covered effectively for 9.8 of their GDP.
Both countries' health care systems rated higher in performance in a
recent World Health Organization report.
"Basic health care is a right in every other industrialized
nation … not a commodity to be bought by those lucky enough to have money,"
says Consumer Reports in a September article resulting from a special
six-month investigation, which includes Texas. A report
by CU's Washington office also released Thursday says the nation faces a "health
care divide," where the financial burden of health care is much greater for
the sick and the poor than for the healthy and the relatively well-off. The
report finds that the sickest 10 percent of Americans spend nearly seven times
as much as the average American spends on health care.
Lisa McGiffert, senior policy analyst for the
Southwest Regional Office of Consumers Union, said Congress' failure
to implement a national solution means states must "act as
laboratories for change, a solution that is far from ideal and at
best yields mixed results."
Texas typifies what ails the rest of the
country, but its problem is more severe. Despite a booming economy,
the state tops the list of states with the highest percentage of
uninsured: 27 percent of the population, or 4.7 million Texans. Even
the allegorical safety net for the uninsured - comprised mostly of
emergency rooms and community health clinics -- is showing signs of
strain due to managed-care cost cutting and low-income consumers
leaving the welfare rolls for jobs.
"It is pure fantasy to believe that health care
clinics and emergency rooms provide health care for all," said
McGiffert. Consumer Reports says the number of people seeking
care from federally funded clinics is up 45 percent over the past
decade. But it also notes the 3,000 federally funded clinics can
meet only 6 percent of the need for dental care. "The emergency room
is not the place to get primary care, follow-up care after
emergencies, and care for chronic conditions. And local clinics have
to beg for specialty care and borrow unused drugs to try to meet
their patients' needs," McGiffert said.
In Austin, according to Consumer
Reports, the People's Community Clinic turned away 153 children
and 184 women who needed checkups in the month of February 2000
alone, and told 94 pregnant women they would have to wait eight weeks
for their first prenatal visit. "For an uninsured person, health
care means the emergency room at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin
… where the price of treating a sore throat may be three to five
times as high as in a doctor's office," the report says.
If patchwork solutions are inevitable for the
time being, Consumers Union believes we should start by finishing the
job of ensuring that all children in the U.S. have comprehensive
health coverage. CU supports legislation in Congress that would do
so. In the absence of true national health care reform, CU also is
urging Congress to expand Medicare to people between 55 and 64 and to
approve a prescription drug plan that covers everyone in
Medicare.
In Texas, numerous legislative committees and
agencies are grappling with similar issues. CU is pushing for a
simplified Medicaid application process for children. The cumbersome
process currently in place creates significant barriers to the
approximately 600,000 Texas children, mostly of working parents, who
are currently eligible for health care under Medicaid but do not
receive it. The Texas Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Uninsured is
also considering the Medicaid simplification issue along with market
based solutions to the uninsured problem.
Many proposed market-based solutions either
diminish the quality of health insurance products by bypassing
mandated benefits, or divide the healthy from the sick. For example,
Medical Savings Accounts, high-deductible insurance policies combined
with a tax-deferred savings account, move us away from pooling risks,
the fundamental principle of keeping health insurance affordable.
Consumer Reports calls it "bad public policy" in its
investigation. "They give a tax break to people more likely to be
healthy, and if they were to become widespread they would help wipe
out what subsidies are left in the insurance system to help care for
the uninsured as well as for people who are more likely to be sick."
"Patchwork solutions can never substitute for
the real deal," said McGiffert. "Every few years one of the patches
falls off and we have to come back and sew it back on. In the
meantime, at a time of great prosperity, second-class medicine is the
fate of the swelling numbers of uninsured and underinsured in the
U.S. and Texas."
The principal recommendation of
"The Health
Care Divide" report echoes this
sentiment. "At a time of unprecedented budget surpluses, Congress
should establish, as a matter of law, that all people in this country
have a right to comprehensive, affordable, quality health care
coverage," the reports states. "If Congress will not undertake a
comprehensive approach, it must address the most important needs of
targeted populations, while guarding against market mechanisms that
divide the healthy from the sick."
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization, serving only the consumer. We are a comprehensive source of unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health, nutrition, and other consumer concerns. Since 1936, our mission has been to test products, inform the public, and protect consumers.
