Some of the scary facts of health care

• More than 60% of home foreclosures are caused by high medical costs; 75% of these families had health insurance
  (Source: American Journal of Medicine - http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5530Y020090604?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0)
• 20% of private health insurance revenue goes to overhead expenses: advertising, lobbying, administration and profit. Medicare and the VHA spend just 2% because their only overhead is administration.
  (Source: http://www.cmanet.org/upload/knox_keene_06.pdf; http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/GAO_rpt.Feb2008.MedicareAdvantage.pdf)
• Nearly 45,000 people die every year due to the lack of health insurance.
  (Source: Harvard Study - http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUS-TRE58G6W520090917)
• Cuba and 28 other countries have a lower infant mortality rate than the United States.
  (Source: Center for Disease Control - http://mchb.hrsa.gov/chusa07/hstat/hsi/pages/207iim.html)
• No health care system should force parents to choose between their children’s sight and their own.
  (Source: http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/nearly-blind-womans-world-grows-darker-as-the-medical-bills-pile-higher/1039722)
• Private health insurance profits increased 428% from 2000 to 2007. They make these profits by denying claims and reducing coverage.
  (Source: http://democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=318508)
• You have a 40% higher risk of death if uninsured com- pared to insured adults. This is a 15% increase from 1993.
  (Source: http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/AJPH.2008.157685v1)
• About 6.24 million (8%) children are still uninsured in the United States.
  (Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur200909.htm)
• Families with health insurance pay an average of $1,100 extra to cover the costs of the uninsured. Every year the cost increases.
  (Source: Center for American Progress - http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2009/03/pdf/cost_shift.pdf)