A year and a half ago, my father breathed his last breath after a long illness that included Alzheimer’s disease. Not a day goes by that I do not think of him and the hopes and aspirations that he had over his lifetime. A child of the Great Depression, he wanted his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to have a better life.
For most of the last seven years of his diagnosis, he was able to live a life of dignity. But that was only because he had the foresight to keep his insurance coverage with his retirement from the U.S. Postal Service. The day we discovered the cost of his prescriptions alone, we realized that this one health dilemma could wipe out all of his savings and those of his children as well.
According to recent national data from the U.S. Census, the number of uninsured increased from 39.8 million in 2001 to 46.3 million in 2008. Most of these individuals are in the middle class – people who work hard and pay their bills, but don’t get health benefits through their employers or can’t afford to buy it on the private market. In Colorado, there are 780,000 uninsured, up from 658,000 in 2001.
This year Governor Bill Ritter and Democrats in the state legislature took bold action to reduce the number of uninsured Coloradans by at least 100,000 and to reduce cost-shifting in the healthcare system.
But these new HHS numbers are yet another important reminder that maintaining the status quo at the federal level is not an option. The number of Coloradans without health insurance will continue to rise if we don’t act now on federal health insurance reform.
The current health insurance system is simply unsustainable, not only because of the rising number of uninsured, but because of the sky-rocketing costs of health care which are crushing families, businesses and local governments and the instability of the system, which leaves everyone, even people with health insurance, at risk of losing their coverage.
There’s more bad news. Those who have insurance aren’t necessarily any better off – new analysis from the Treasury Department found that nearly half of all Americans under 65 will lose their health coverage at some point in the next 10 years.
Bottom line: each one of us could suddenly find ourselves without health care coverage and we all stand to benefit from health insurance reform.
It’s been about 100 years since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform. Almost every president since has tried to reform our system, but they’ve failed – piling more burdens on American families and businesses with each missed opportunity. Over the past 10 years, health insurance premiums increased by 131 percent and the average family policy now costs $13,375 a year.
We’re closer than ever to passing comprehensive reform – four out of five congressional committees have completed their work and an unprecedented coalition of doctors, nurses, hospitals, seniors groups, even drug companies, are backing action this year. If opponents of reform have their way, we’ll fall short again.
The most lenient of them say we need to wait. While we wait premiums will continue to rise three times faster than wages, or deficits will increase and eventually the United States will spend more on Medicare and Medicaid than every other government program combined.
President Obama inherited an economy in shambles and escalating deficits, but he’s taken bold and necessary actions to rescue our economy from the brink and is starting to rebuild stronger than before. Healthcare reform is essential to the process of rebuilding. We want healthcare that will allow people to take care of themselves and live with the same dignity my father had.
This is truly a historic moment in our nation’s history. My family is speaking out in support of the President’s plan, along with contributing to the Alzheimer’s Association in Dad’s memory. Together, we must look beyond the critics and supporters of the status quo to the brighter future that lies ahead. We can act. We must act. The future of our nation and our people depends on it.
Pat Waak is Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
