Let's get all Americans health-insurance coverage

It's not news that business and labor don't always see eye to eye. Yet today we stand together on behalf of the 335,000 Utahns and 41 million Americans who live without health insurance. Business and labor have joined forces because we agree that having more than 14 percent of America's population go without health insurance is unacceptable, and we must seek solutions to America's greatest health- care challenge: covering the uninsured.

Prestigious organizations both nationally and locally are working together to raise awareness of the tragic consequences of going without health insurance. The Salt Lake City Chamber and the Utah AFL- CIO are joined by the United Way of Salt Lake, Utah Children, Utah Issues, Intermountain Health Care, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, the Utah Medical Association and the Utah Hospitals and Health Systems Association, among others, in recognizing that this problem extends to all sectors of our society and the responsibility to fix a broken system lies with us all.

America is taking action because this problem will not just go away. Recent U.S. Census Bureau data indicates that more Americans went without health insurance than the year before. According to figures released in September 2002, 41.2 million people (14.6 % of the U.S. population) were uninsured in 2001, an increase of 1.4 million from the previous year. Even during good economic times, tens of millions of Americans do not have health care coverage. Despite the booming economy of the 1990s, the number of uninsured increased by nearly 10 million.

Being uninsured is not primarily a problem of the unemployed. In fact, eight out of 10 of the uninsured nationally are in working families. In Utah, nine out of 10 are in working families. They are not offered health coverage at work, or they cannot afford health premiums. Moreover, most of them are not eligible for public programs, even though they earn modest incomes. According to the Center for Studying Health System Change, 20 percent of uninsured Americans have access to employer-sponsored coverage, but most cannot afford the coverage that is offered given their modest salaries and the high cost of health coverage.

Most businesses have the best of intentions when it comes to providing health benefits to their employees, yet the rising cost of health care is making it more difficult. The number of small firms offering health benefits fell 6 percent in the previous year according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. About half of all uninsured people in the U.S. work for businesses with fewer than 99 employees. With a sluggish economy and a variety of factors driving up health care costs (according to one survey, U.S. companies saw an average increase in health benefit costs of almost 15 percent in 2002), some businesses are having great difficulty maintaining affordable coverage options for their employees.

Being uninsured takes a toll on men, women and children. Uninsured men are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed at a late stage of colon cancer as men with insurance. Uninsured women with breast cancer are twice as likely to die as insured women with the same disease. And children without insurance are 70 percent more likely than insured children not to receive medical care for common childhood illnesses such as ear infections. The result of going without insurance is measurable and tragic. People without insurance delay getting care, live with prolonged illness, and die before their time.

As employers and workers, we have different perspectives on this problem. Our partners in this effort -- insurers, consumers, doctors, hospitals and nurses -- bring additional perspectives to the debate. Though we might not agree on a specific solution, our goal is to make the problem of the uninsured a top priority on our nation's agenda. Let's get America covered. To learn more, go to www.CoverTheUninsured.org.

Craig Peterson is acting president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, and Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley City, is president of the Utah AFL-CIO.

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