Jon L. Christensen: “in this Cover the Uninsured week, I rise to say that our health care system in this country is falling short on promise…”

“in this Cover the Uninsured week, I rise to say that our health care system in this country is falling short on promise and contributing to disabling illness and premature death of the people it is supposed to serve. The picture is worse for African Americans who, for almost every illness, are impacted more severely and disproportionately, in some cases more than all other minorities combined. Every day in this country there are at least 200 African American deaths which could and should have been prevented. The current strongly held-to ``cost containment'' paradigm, while it sounds good on the surface, has obviously not worked. We now have double digit increases in premiums in an industry that was to rein in costs. What it did instead was create a multi-tiered system of care, both within managed care and without. Those at the lowest rungs of the system got and continue to get sicker. The sicker, and the more costly, were and are still being dropped, and those who are sickest were and remain locked out entirely. In 2003, health care spending rose to $1.7 trillion, or an average of almost $5,000 per person. As a percentage of the gross domestic product, it grew from 13.1 percent in 1999 to 15.2 percent in 2002. National health care expenditures are expected to reach $2.8 trillion in 2011.”