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WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) today released his "Fast Facts about the U.S. Health Care System," citing a need to emphasize why Americans can no longer afford the status quo of the nation's health care system.
"Every one of these facts is a reason why it is imperative that we change America's health care system," said Pascrell, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "It is my hope that these facts will help dispel any half-truths and misinformation muddling the national debate on health care with hard data."
Fast Facts about the U.S. Health Care System
Cost
Ø By 2030, the nation’s health care spending is projected to increase by 25 percent due to demographic shifts, unless we improve and preserve the health of older adults. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Ø Expanding health insurance coverage to the uninsured would increase net economic well-being by roughly $100 billion a year, which is roughly two-thirds of a percent of GDP. (Council of Economic Advisers)
Ø The share of adults under age 65 who went without needed care because of costs increased sharply from 2001 to 2007, rising from 29 percent to 45 percent. (Commonwealth Fund, 2/24/09)
Ø In 2007, 72 million Americans either experienced problems paying medical bills or accrued medical debt. (The Commonwealth Fund)
Ø Currently, families pay an additional $1,100 in premiums each year to cover part of the costs the uninsured impose on our health care system. (Center for American Progress)
Ø Rural residents pay on average for 40% of their health care costs out of their own pocket, compared with the urban share of one-third. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Humans Services)
Ø In 2007, more than half (52%) of women reported problems accessing needed care because of cost. (Commonwealth Fund)
Ø In 2007, 45 percent of women accrued medical debt or reported problems with medical bills.
Ø Forty percent of small businesses said that health costs have had a negative impact on other parts of their business, for example, contributing to high employee turnover or preventing business growth. (Main Street Alliance)
Ø Technology—not demographics or medical malpractice—is the key driver of health spending, accounting for an estimated half to two-thirds of spending growth. (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Ø Since 1987, the cost of the average family health insurance policy has risen from 7% of median family income to 17%. (New America Foundation)
Ø Health insurance costs for small firms have increased 129% over the last eight years. (NFIB/Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø U.S. firms spend twice as much on health care as their foreign competitors, putting American firms at a global competitive disadvantage. (New America Foundation)
Ø In 2007, our economy lost as much as $207 billion because of the poor health and shorter lifespan of the uninsured. (New America Foundation)
Ø The care of people with chronic illness accounts for more than 75% of all U. S. health care expenditures. (Centers for Disease Control)
Ø The U.S. spends more than $2 trillion annually on health care, but tens of millions of Americans still suffer every day from chronic disease. (Shortchanging America’s Health 2008, TFAH)
Ø The U.S. spends more than any other nation on health care. (Shortchanging America’s Health, TFAH)
Ø From the beginning of 2000 through June 2007, approximately 5 million families filed for bankruptcy due to medical reasons. (Families USA)
Ø 52% of workers cite cost as the top influence when choosing a health plan. (National Business Group)
Ø From 2000 to 2009, the number of people in families spending more than 10 percent of their pre-tax income on health care will grow by nearly 22.7 million—an increase of 54.4 percent.
Ø 78% of those filing for personal bankruptcy due to medical problems had medical insurance at the start of their illness. 60.3% had private coverage. (Harvard University and Ohio University)
Ø 18.7 million non-elderly Americans are in families that will spend more than 25 percent of their pre-tax income on health care in 2009. (Families USA)
Ø The number of physician-owned facilities has increased substantially in the last decade, as have the number of imaging procedures performed in physician offices and independent diagnostic testing facilities. (RWJ Foundation)
Ø The median market share of the largest small group carrier has increased to about 47 percent in 2008 from the 43 percent reported in 2005 and the 33 percent reported in 2002. (GAO)
Ø Twenty percent of women compare the costs of doctors and medical procedures versus 15% of men. (CIGNA)
Ø The total 2009 medical cost for a typical American family of four is $16,771, compared with the 2008 figure of $15,609. This is a 7.4% increase from 2008 to 2009. (Milliman Medical Index)
Ø The average annual income for family physicians is $173,000, while oncologists earn $335,000, radiologists $391,000 and cardiologists $419,000. (Merritt Hawkins medical recruiting firm)
Ø 53% of Americans cut back on their health care in the past 12 months due to cost. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø More than one-third (37.1 percent) of people in families that will spend more than 25 percent of their pre-tax income on health care in 2009 are from families that earn more than $30,000 per year. (Families USA)
Ø The national average for spending per Medicare enrollee was $8,304 dollars in 2006. (Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy)
Ø 62% of families currently at 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level are having trouble meeting medical expenses under health insurance plans purchased in the individual market. The America’s Affordable Health Choices Act provides affordability credits to these families to help pay for health insurance. (The Census & Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø Health care costs for small business have grown 30% since 2000. (Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy)
Ø Per capita medical costs are expected to increase 71 percent over the next decade in the absence of health insurance reform. (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
Ø Half of adults with Individual Coverage have out-of-pocket and premium costs that equal 10 percent or more of income. (Commonwealth Fund)
Ø 11.3 percent of drug spending in Medicare Part D is for administrative expenses. 14.1 percent of drug spending in private, Medicare Advantage plans is for administrative expenses.
Ø Rural residents pay on average for 40% of their health care costs out of their own pocket, compared with the urban share of one-third. (Health Affairs)
Ø The number of physician-owned facilities has increased substantially in the last decade, as have the number of imaging procedures performed in physician offices and independent diagnostic testing facilities.
(Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Ø The median market share of the largest small group carrier has increased to about 47 percent in 2008 from the 43 percent reported in 2005 and the 33 percent reported in 2002.
(Government Accountability Office)
Prevention, Chronic Disease, & Quality
Ø Approximately 100,000 Americans die each year due to potentially avoidable medical errors. (Institute of Medicine)
Ø Only 4 cents of every health care dollar is spent on prevention. (Brookings Institution)
Ø On average, American adults received just 55% of recommended care for the leading causes of death and disability. (New England Journal of Medicine)
Ø 75 cents of every health care dollar spent goes towards treating chronic diseases. (Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease)
Ø As people’s Body Mass Index (BMI) increases, so do the number of sick days, medical claims and health care costs. (Trust for America's Health)
Ø Chronic diseases kill more than 1.7 million Americans per year, and are responsible for 70% of deaths in the US. (Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease)
Ø About one-third of the uninsured have a chronic disease, and they are six times less likely to receive care for a health problem than the insured. (DHHS Report, 6/8/2009)
Ø One out of every four heart failure patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. (CMS)
Ø Adult obesity rates now exceed 25 percent in 31 states and exceed 20 percent in 49 states and Washington, D.C. (Trust for America’s Health)
Ø Three fourths of 17-year-olds have at least one decayed tooth. Many of these cavities could be prevented simply by fluoridating community water supplies and applying dental sealants to children’s teeth. (Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General)
Ø From 1995 to 1999, 20 percent of Medicare beneficiaries accounted for 84 percent of total Medicare spending. Contrary to popular myth, most of these expenditures were not incurred at the end of life, but were due to treatment of chronic conditions. (Partnership for Prevention)
Ø One out of every 14 patients with clinically significant abnormal results don’t get this information from their doctors. (Archives of Internal Medicine)
Ø Each year on average in the U.S., about 50,000 adults die from vaccine-preventable diseases or their complications. (National Foundation for Infectious Diseases)
Ø More Americans die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases than from breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, traffic accidents, and many other causes.
(National Foundation for Infectious Diseases)
Ø Medicare beneficiaries experience low rates of access problems compared with other insured individuals. (Center for Studying Health System Change)
Ø Heart disease and stroke are the first- and third-leading causes of death for both men and women in the United States and account for over one-third of all American deaths. (Centers for Disease Control)
Ø One in five Americans—59 million people—reported not getting or delaying needed medical care in 2007, up from one in seven—36 million people—in 2003. (Center for Studying Health System Change)
Coverage / Uninsured
Ø Absent reform, the number of uninsured will reach 61 million by 2020. (The Commonwealth Fund)
Ø Annually, federal and state governments pay 75% of the $56 billion in uncompensated care provided to the uninsured. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø In areas of high uninsurance, insured adults are more likely to have difficulties obtaining needed health care. (Institute of Medicine)
Ø Over 1/3 of the uninsured have been diagnosed with a chronic illness. (Annals of Internal Medicine)
Ø Nearly one in five of the uninsured – 8.5 million people – live in rural areas. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Humans Services)
Ø In 2008, approximately 77 million people went without health insurance for all or part of the year. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø Over the past 20 years, the rates of private insurance coverage in rural areas have fallen by more than 12%. (National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services)
Ø Only 36% of rural workers in small firms are likely to have health benefits offered to them. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø Every 1% in the unemployment rate causes 2.4 million people to lose their employer sponsored coverage. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø In 2008, 38% of small companies offered health coverage, compared with 41% in 2007 and 61% in 1993. (National Small Business Association)
Ø Rising unemployment and job losses cause an estimated 14,000 people to lose their health insurance every day in December 2008 and January 2009 alone. (Center for American Progress)
Ø An estimated 18,000 – 22,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have health insurance. (Urban Institute)
Ø Most of the 45 million uninsured are in working families and do not have access to employer-sponsored insurance. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Ø Approximately 50 percent of rural employees work for small businesses. People working for small businesses are twice as likely to be uninsured.
(Center for Rural Affairs)
Ø According to a Hewitt Associates survey, 19% of all U.S. businesses plan to halt providing health care benefits to their employees in the next three to five years.
Ø 159 million non-elderly Americans (61% of the non-elderly population) are covered by employer-sponsored health insurance. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Workforce
Ø The Association of American Medical Colleges has projected a shortage of as many as 150,000 primary care physicians by 2025. (Association of American Medical Colleges)
Ø Rural America is home to about 25% of our population, but only 10% of our practicing physicians. (National Rural Health Association)
Ø In 2008, just 2 percent of medical students surveyed planned to pursue a career in primary care medicine. (Journal of the American Medical Association)
Ø The health care sector employs 13.4 million workers, and has added 351,000 jobs over the past year. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
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