A National Disgrace

Healthcare reform is certainly the hot topic these days, especially among Democrats. Republicans, as usual, are quiet as church mice, except when lashing out at the Democratic presidential candidates. As for offering plans of their own … a deafening silence from the R’s.

It is especially pathetic, since a report released today from FamiliesUSA found that 89.6 million Americans were without healthcare during 2006-2007. You read right. The reported figure of 47 million without care was for those who last year had no coverage for the entire year.

More than one in three Americans under age 65 had no care at some point in the past two years. That is truly a national disgrace.

Another scary figure that FamiliesUSA discovered is that four of five of the uninsured were working families, with practically all of those working full time. And 64 percent lacked coverage for six months or more, 50 percent were uninsured for nine months or more.

Goodbye health insurance, hello expensive emergency rooms.

So: Who says we don’t need serious healthcare reform in this country?