Mark Schauer: “Health care is an issue of basic economics to middle class families, seniors and businesses. During the health care…”

“Health care is an issue of basic economics to middle class families, seniors and businesses. During the health care debate, my constituents have asked me to listen. I'm listening. The story I heard last week is from a college in my area. It employs 300 people. As in the case with many employers, the lion's share of their costs come from employee costs, 70 percent in this college's case. Their health insurance premiums this year went up 17 percent. Seventeen percent. What does that mean? It means job cuts or tuition increases, or both, both disastrous for middle class families in our economy. Seventeen percent premium increases. The Nation's five largest private health insurance companies' profits went up $12 billion last year while they dropped 2.7 million people from coverage. Our current health care system may work for the health insurance industry, but it is broken for middle class families and is hurting our economies. It must be fixed now.”