We can educate people about what the healthcare plan is with these links:
http://www.healthreform.gov /
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare /
http://standwithdrdean.com /
http://singlepayernow.netHere's the text for handy distribution (tell friends, family, on the radio, in Letters To The Editor or on a home-made grassroots flyer to hand out or leave off somewhere):
Nearly 46 million Americans have no insurance, and 25 million more are underinsured.
In the United States, total health care spending was $2.4 trillion in 2007 -- or $7,900 per person -- according to an analysis published in the journal Health Affairs.
The United States spends 52 percent more per person than the next most costly nation, Norway, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In the United States, every person spends on average $6,714 for health care. That's significantly higher than in the United Kingdom, where $2,760 per person is spent; or in France, where the cost is $3,449 per person; or in Canada, where medical costs are $3,678 per person, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The United States ranks 50th in life expectancy, and 180th infant mortality (meaning 179 countries have higher infant mortality rates such as Angola and Turkey and 43 countries have lower infant mortality rates such as France and Sweden) according to the CIA World Factbook.
The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems rates the United States 37th in the World.
In 2008, total national health expenditures were expected to rise 6.9 percent -- two times the rate of inflation.
U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4.3 TRILLION in 2017, or 20 percent of GDP.
Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.
Workers are now paying $1,600 more in premiums annually for family coverage than they did in 1999.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States have been rising four times faster on average than workers’ earnings since 1999.
About 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs.
Retiring elderly couples will need $250,000 in savings just to pay for the most basic medical coverage.
More info:
http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml