Whatever your opinion is on the health insurance debate, the fact remains that a national discussion is needed. Michael Moore, in his new film, Sicko attempts to create items for discussion. I personally don't subscribe to his solutions, but do believe that it is a huge issue in America today. The survey included in this entry provides all the statistics that a "numbers" junkie could ask for in analyzing these issues. I'll pull out from the survey several facts. Please click below to review the entire survey. Of particular note to me is the growth in obesity statistics (page 36 ) and also the continued trend upward of the diagnosis of diabetes (page 82 ).
An estimated 43.6 million Americans, 14.8% of the population, lacked health insurance when surveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006. That’s up from 41.1 million, or 14.2%, in 2005, based on the CDC’s latest National Health Interview Survey. Roughly one in five working-age Americans (19.8%) were uninsured, up from 18.9% in 2005; and 9.3% of children, up from 8.9%. Young adults 18-24 had the highest proportion of uninsured by age. Hispanics were more likely to be uninsured (32.1%) than African Americans (15.9%) or whites (10.4%). I know politics for 2008 will impact greatly on the overall discussion. Let's hope candidates from both parties emerge that are bold enough to at least start a reasoned discussion. Please log your thoughts on the issue under the comment section of this entry.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment