Health Care

Guarantee Quality, Affordable Health Care Now!

The U.S. Health Care System is Broken: Now Is the Time for Reform

The diagnosis is simple: Our health care system is broken and it’s hurting America’s families and businesses. That’s why AFSCME is waging a national campaign to win a common sense solution to our crisis — one that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all.

Americans pay more than ever before for their health care, even as a record number of us lack the basic security of insurance coverage. The problem of accelerating health care costs now constitutes a full-fledged assault on American workers and their families.

Health insurance premiums are rising three times faster than wages, threatening to destroy the economic security of working families throughout the nation. At a time when the average family coverage premium is $12,000, more employers are dropping health coverage, leaving their workers to fend for themselves. But even for those workers who still have health coverage through their jobs, many are forced to pay greater out-of-pocket costs due to high deductibles and co-pays.

Make no mistake: American families have taken a major hit because of out-of-control health care costs. One in four of us have had a problem paying for health care during the past year. Approximately 30% of us say that someone in our family has delayed medical care this year because of high costs. And medical bankruptcy has reached epic proportion, with someone filing for bankruptcy every 30 seconds in America because of medical debt.

Soaring health care costs have weakened our power at the bargaining table, forcing us to use all our leverage just to protect our members’ health benefits, preventing adequate investment in wages or retirement benefits. As this trend continues, our members fall farther behind economically.

And while the rise in health care costs is devastating working families, it also impacts our strength as a nation. The U.S. currently spends 16% of its gross domestic product on health care, more than any other nation in the world. This means that one out of every six dollars is spent on health care; leaving less money to invest in other national priorities.

As health care costs have sky-rocketed, a record number of us are now uninsured. More than 47 million Americans currently lack health insurance coverage. And the crisis of the uninsured is everyone’s problem, as insurance premiums are padded to pay for the uninsured. On average, more than $1,000 of the average $12,000 premium for family coverage goes to pay more the uninsured.

As more Americans lose health insurance coverage or can no longer afford to take up coverage they are offered, the rolls of public health coverage programs (such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program – SCHIP) swell, straining state budgets to the brink. And when state budgets are in crisis, our members’ face the possibility of pay cuts or even job loss.

That’s why the time is now to guarantee quality, affordable health care we can all count on. To achieve this, AFSCME has developed “Health Care for America” — an initiative to protect and improve our health benefits, control skyrocketing costs and assure affordable coverage for everyone.

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