Health crisis will worsen if Congress fails to act

By 2019, up to 66 million Americans could be uninsured and the costs of health care for businesses could double unless comprehensive health reform is enacted by Congress.

That is a key finding in a report, Health Reform: The Cost of Failure, released May 21 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"As battered as our health system has been in recent years, unless we take action, the worst is far from over," said Riza Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D. and president of the Foundation.

Researchers at the Urban Institute prepared the analysis using its Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model, which estimates how coverage and cost trends would change between now and 2019.  Three scenarios were considered:  a worst case, involving slow growth in income and high growth in health care costs; an intermediate case, involving somewhat faster income growth but lower growth in health care costs; and a best case scenario, involving full employment, faster income growth, and slow growth in health care costs.

Under any of these scenarios, the analysis showed a tremendous strain on business owners and their employees over the next decade if reform is not enacted.  There would be a dramatic decline in the percentage of people insured through their employers, and millions more would become uninsured.  There would be significant growth in the number of people accessing public coverage and major increases in health care spending and uncompensated care.  While all income levels would be affected, middle-class working families would be hardest hit, according to the report.

"In Pennsylvania, we can't afford for our congressional delegation and their colleagues in Washington to botch health reform," said Berry Friesen, public affairs manager for the PA Health Access Network.  "The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's report gives us a window into the future to see just how bad things could get if we don't act now to fix it."

To review the full report, click here.