The Commonwealth Fund has posted a page on its web site with revealing reactions to the organization's recent study showing a rise in the proportion of middle-income Americans without health insurance. Here are a few excerpts.
Most respondents showed a distinct lack of surprise and identified rising healthcare costs as a key culprit:
"To learn that a growing number of people in moderate- and middle-income households are going without health coverage is disheartening, but not surprising. As the head of a large hospital system serving a major metropolitan area, I see the impact of more and more families going without medical care due to the combination of eroding health insurance coverage and rapidly rising health care costs."
--James Mongan, M.D., President and CEO, Partners HealthCare, and Chair, Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System
"As the director of a large metropolitan area public health department and a practicing pediatrician, I witness the impact that the high cost of health care has on families and communities. Every day, I see working families that are struggling to pay for food, housing, clothing, and transportation, and that don't seek care until an illness has progressed to the point where hospitalization, surgery, and expensive medicines are required to treat it."
--Fernando Guerra, M.D., Director, City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and Member, Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System
"Often, the problems of the uninsured and underinsured are attributed to the difficulty small firms have in subsidizing health benefits for their workers. While this is undoubtedly true, given the unsustainable cost of health insurance today, it obscures the coverage problem in large corporations. This report documents the extent to which coverage problems exist in large businesses that reject a shared responsibility approach, where the company provides significant funding for health care and workers contribute as well."
--Gerald Shea, Assistant to the President for Government Affairs, AFL-CIO
Solutions posed include collaborative work to control costs, build on programs already in place, and enhance preventive care:
"No economy can support the current rate of growth in health care costs. Business owners both large and small work hard to offer coverage to their employees but in order for them to remain effective and competitive, health care costs must be brought under control."
--Helen Darling, President, National Business Group on Health
"If we are going to make true progress for the hardworking uninsured families in our communities, we must put a higher priority on the importance of a medical home; begin to value the relationship between health care professionals and their patients; make routine health care affordable for working families; and ensure that essential preventative care is accessible."
--Fernando Guerra, M.D., Director, City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and Member, Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System
"Real solutions that build on group forms of coverage already in place, including employer plans, Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and state and federal employee benefits programs, can help to fill insurance gaps with meaningful, affordable coverage that helps link families and providers."
--James Mongan, M.D., President and CEO, Partners HealthCare, and Chair, Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System
