“Imagine discovering a lump in your
breast and you don’t know what it is. You don’t have health care
coverage and you don’t have a physician to check it out. Now imagine if
it kept growing. What would you do?”
This question, posited by surgeon and AMA member Sylvia Campbell, MD,
represents an unfortunate reality for the nation’s 41 million uninsured.
Dr. Campbell knows; she sees it everyday at the Judeo Christian Health
Clinic, a free medical center in Tampa, Fla., where she has worked for
more than 20 years. There, she treats patients with breast cancer,
obstructed gall bladders, renal failure and more - all who have been
forced to delay seeking medical treatment due to lack of insurance.
“These are the people who have fallen through the cracks of the
system,” Dr. Campbell said. “Many of them are the working poor –
they choose to work but don’t have health care coverage and cannot
afford to buy it on their own, and earn too much to qualify for
Medicare.”
Working or not, living without health care coverage can be financially,
emotionally and psychologically devastating. “It is an incredibly
frightening situation to be in,” Dr. Campbell described, “to be afraid
to go to the doctor because you fear something will be there and you will
be unable to do anything to help yourself, or your child or a loved
one.”
Which is exactly why the AMA, together with the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation (RWJF) and an array of other national organizations, recently
gathered in Washington, D.C., to kick off Cover the Uninsured Week.
Running until March 16, the weeklong series of events is dedicated to
raising awareness about the plight of the uninsured. With past U.S.
Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter serving as honorary co-chairs of
the project, Cover the Uninsured Week is sponsoring more than 500
grassroots events in communities nationwide, including town hall meetings,
campus events, health fairs and interfaith prayer breakfasts.
The AMA joins an impressive array of other organizations in Cover
the Uninsured Week, including RWJF (the week’s main sponsor), the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, the American Hospital Association,
the Health Insurance Association of America, AARP, Families USA and more.
AMA President Yank
D. Coble Jr., MD, said that, as a longtime champion of the idea that
every American should have health insurance, the AMA is pleased to be a
co-sponsor of the campaign. “Despite economic prosperity and job
creation over the past decade, more and more Americans found themselves
without health insurance,” Dr. Coble said. “And with the recent
downturn in the economy, even more Americans find themselves at risk. The
uninsured often delay obtaining medical care and preventive services,
jeopardizing their health and the healthy development of their children.
Living without health insurance is, in itself, a serious health risk.”
While conventional estimates have placed the number of uninsured
Americans at 41 million, a recent report released by RWJF estimates that
nearly 75 million Americans under the age of 65 were uninsured at some
point in 2001 and 2002. The report revealed that four of five uninsured
Americans are in working families. And though more than half of the
nation’s uninsured were non-Hispanic whites, racial minorities were
disproportionately affected, with 52 percent of Hispanics and 40 percent
of African-Americans going uninsured sometime in the same two-year span.
The crisis of having little or no insurance affects many different
groups, but the statistics carry frighteningly similar consequences:
delayed treatment and poorer outcomes. For example, nearly one in five
African-Americans are currently uninsured and, therefore, are diagnosed
later in life with prostate, colorectal and skin cancer – all of which,
if detected earlier, could be more easily treated and cured. Women, who
account for 47 percent of the uninsured, are twice as likely to die if
they have breast cancer and are uninsured. And men who lack health
insurance are almost 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with colon
cancer at a later – and therefore more dangerous – stage, than men
with health insurance.
In light of such statistics, Cover the Uninsured Week is striving to
draw attention to the cause with this week’s series of events. The
University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health is holding a free
panel discussion on the economic, ethical and care-giving aspects of the
health care coverage problem. In Detroit, an interfaith prayer summit is
bringing together 200 religious leaders to discus the crisis. And in each
of New York’s five boroughs, health fairs with free screenings are being
held, as are low-cost insurance enrollment events presented at local
places of worship by the Mayor’s Office of Health Insurance Access.
The AMA offers a proposal for health care finance reform which would
dramatically increase the number of Americans with health insurance
coverage while allowing patients to choose a competitive insurance package
that best meets their need. The cornerstone of our proposal is a system of
refundable, income-related individual tax credits for the purchase of
health insurance. We also suggest the promotion of individual selection
and ownership of coverage, defined contributions from employers, and
alternative markets through which to purchase coverage. The AMA proposal
would redirect the existing government subsidy for health insurance toward
those least able to afford coverage, thereby expanding coverage as well as
choice.
For Dr. Campbell, the ultimate solution remains to be seen. “I
don’t know the answer,” she said. “I just know these people need to
get help.” One idea she has is for physicians across the nation to
mobilize their communities in developing a mechanism for sharing in the
care of the uninsured.
“It is incumbent upon organized medicine to be part of the
solution,” Dr. Campbell believes. “Our main job as healers is to care
for those who are sick, suffering and need our help, whether they have
insurance or not. That’s why we went into medicine.”
Learn how you
can get involved in Cover the Uninsured Week.
Learn more
about the AMA’s proposal for expanding health insurance reform
