Posted October 17, 2008
The United States is the only wealthy, developed nation that does not provide guaranteed health care for all of its citizens, regardless of their ability to pay. According to Families USA, a nonprofit and nonpartisan health organization, nearly 90 million Americans (almost a third of the country) went without health care for all or part of 2006-2007. Because the uninsured are less likely to get routine preventive care, they are more likely to wind up sick. That's a problem for all of us because sick people are less productive than healthy ones, and when the uninsured can't afford to pay their medical bills, health premiums go up, passing extra costs on to everyone else.
In spite of the large number of uninsured Americans, the United States spends more than $2.1 trillion each year on health care. That's more than any other nation and is expected to double by 2017. Considering how much money we spend on health care, one would expect the United States to be one of the healthiest nations in the world. But we're not. We're one of the sickest. Our rates of chronic (and often preventable) conditions like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease are on the rise, while life expectancies are on the decline. In fact, babies being born right now in 41 other countries can expect to outlive a baby born today in the United States.
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