Fear of losing health insurance pervasive
25 03 08 - 11:09
By DIANE STAFFORD
The Kansas City Star
Fear of losing their health insurance if they change jobs haunts nearly three-fourths of American workers, according to a survey released this morning by the AFL-CIO.
More than 26,000 individuals responded during the labor organization's seven-week-long "Health Care for America" survey at www.healthcaresurvey.aflcio.org .
Ninety-five percent of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with the cost of health care, and 64 percent said they were dissatisfied with the quality.
Three-fourths of the respondents had some kind of health care coverage, with about four-fifths of them obtaining it through employers.
The results are being sent to candidates running for public office this year, said AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.
"We knew people were hurting," Sweeney said. "The response we received was stunning enough - both in content and sheer volume - to redefine the debate over health care in America, during the election season and beyond."
One survey respondent from the Kansas City area, a woman identified as Jennifer from Independence, described the trouble she had getting health care for her 2-year-old daughter who has breathing problems.
A single, working mother, Jennifer said she earned too much to qualify for Medicaid assistance and had been unable to find an insurance company willing to cover her daughter on the private market.
"They tell me I would be better off to quit my job," she wrote on the survey. "I would lose our house and all I have worked for. Instead we pray for another healthy day and hope her lungs mature. For today a mother is helpless, a child suffers, and this is America."
Among survey respondents who had health insurance, about half said it did not cover all the care they needed at a price they could afford. Prescription drugs were ranked as the most unaffordable element of health care.
To reach Diane Stafford, call 816-234-4359 or send e-mail to stafford@kcstar.com. Read her recent columns and Workspace blog at www.workspacekc.typepad.com.