This
page was printed from the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Web site at www.paaflcio.org.
For more information about the information in this document contact:Access to Healthcare
Pennsylvania has many internationally-known medical centers, but recent trends in access to health care in Pennsylvania are sobering:
In 2004, about 1.4 million Pennsylvanians had no health insurance. As health insurance costs have increased the number of Pennsylvanians without health insurance has grown rapidly -- by 40 percent between 1999 and 2003.
Pennsylvanians with health insurance and their employers have had to cope health premium increases far in excess of the rate of inflation for several years. Between 1997 and 2001, according to IssuesPA, health insurance premiums in Pennsylvania rose by more than 40%, or an average of more than 10% a year. Many businesses, especially smaller businesses have been forced to drop health-care coverage for their employees.
As employers have passed more and more of the cost of health insurance on to their employees, Pennsylvania workers have had to make due with less disposable income and some have had to make the difficult choice to drop their health insurance altogether. According to one recent study, millions of working families in the U.S. are just one health crisis away from bankruptcy. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare estimates that 78,000 more Pennsylvanians will need medical assistance in 2006-7.
In Pennsylvania, partly as the result of a population older than average in the U.S., state spending on health care for the uninsured is beginning to dominate the state budget. Medical assistance payments now constitute 19% of state expenditures from the General Fund, up from 16% just five years ago. Because assistance from the Federal government is likely to decline, Pennsylvanians will have to pay a larger share of state government's health care spending.
Without significant reform, Pennsylvania will have a great health care system that few Pennsylvanians will be able to afford. In the long run, the overall quality of our health system can't be sustained without funding from somewhere.
Access to Health Care is Critical
Common sense suggests workers and employers have a common interest in the availability of quality, affordable health care. Sick employees can't be very productive. Workers have to be healthy to make a living.
Health Care In Pennsylvania
In 2003, the last for which data are available, 1.38 million Pennsylvanians did not have health care insurance.
Between 1999 and 2003, the number of Pennsylvanians without health insurance grew by 40 percent rising from 989,000 to 1.38 million.
The percentage of Pennsylvanians covered employer-based health fell fell by 5% between 2000 and 2003.
(Source: KRC State of Working Pennsylvania 2004)
Read about the impact of Medical Assistance on the most recent state budget on IssuesPA.
Share your story
Countless Pennsylvanians are facing the growing problem of increasing health care costs and failing quality in health care. Are you?
If you are struggling with health care, send us your story. By sharing your story you can help make Pennsylvania's politicians face up to the state's health care crisis.
Americans for Health Care
Visit the Web site of the Union-led Americans for Health Care, an organization that's working to win access to reliable, quality, affordable health care in 18 states.