I wonder who is behind this 'grass roots" site?
http://healthcare.change.org/blog/vi...propaganda_war
http://www.gethealthreformright.org/...myths_vs_facts
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Myths vs. Facts
MYTH: A government plan will provide more choice ? people could keep their existing employer coverage or enroll in the new government plan.
FACT: Creating a new government plan would cause the employer-provided health insurance system that 160 million Americans rely on today to unravel. A recent study estimates that up to 119 million people with private coverage would be shifted into the new government plan almost overnight. Private insurance premiums would skyrocket due to government cost-shifting, making private health insurance unaffordable for most Americans. The government plan would quickly become the only affordable option for coverage. The government plan also could lead to less choice of providers and cause massive delays in access to care and long waits for services.
MYTH: Employer-based health coverage is vanishing.
FACT: The percentage of large employers (those with 200 or more employees) that offer insurance to their workers has held steady between 98 and 99 percent since 1999. (1)
* 99 percent of large employers (with 200 or more employees) and 94 percent of firms with 50-199 employees offer coverage.
* Even among smaller firms, most employers offer coverage, including 90 percent of firms with 25-49 employees and 78 percent of firms with 10-24 workers.
MYTH: Workers pay more for their health coverage than employers contribute.
FACT: Employers heavily subsidize their employees? coverage. (2)
* The average employer subsidy is 84 percent for individual coverage and 73 percent for family coverage.
* The average annual total premium cost paid by the employer and employee is $4,704 for single coverage and $12,680 for family coverage.
* Of the total premium, the average annual worker contribution for single and family coverage is $721 and $3,354, respectively.
* Total premiums for covered workers in small firms (3-199 workers) are similar to those for covered workers in large firms (200 or more workers) for both single and family coverage. Annual premiums for single coverage are $4,586 (small firms) and $4,763 (large firms), and annual premiums for family coverage are $12,091 (small firms) and $12,973 (large firms).
MYTH: Most workers aren?t happy with the quality of the health coverage they receive from employers.
FACT: Employees generally are highly satisfied with their coverage.
* In a recent employee survey, over two-thirds of employees rated their current employer-based coverage as ?excellent? or ?very good.? (3)
* 60 percent of employees rank health insurance as their most important employer benefit. In comparison, the second most cited response by employees was retirement plans, with only 17 percent of employees ranking those as most important. (4)
* In a 2007 Watson Wyatt survey, 82 percent of employees said they were satisfied with their ability to choose a doctor. (5)
MYTH: Under most employer-sponsored health plans, workers can?t choose their own doctors.
FACT: The majority of employees with employer-sponsored coverage (80 percent) have a broad choice of doctors: (6)
* PPO: 58 percent
* Point-of-Service: 12 percent
* High-Deductible Health Plan: 8 percent
* Traditional Indemnity: 2 percent
* Only 20 percent are enrolled in HMOs and must use doctors within the HMO.
MYTH: Most employees would rather have a higher salary than employer-provided health coverage.
FACT: The value employees place on health benefits exceeds the actual cost of those benefits. (7)
* 76 percent of employees preferred $7,500 in employer-based health coverage to an additional $7,500 in wages.
* Those preferring health benefits were asked what dollar increase in taxable income would be required for them to give up $7,500 of employer health benefits. 50 percent said $10,000 or more; 11 percent said no increase in taxable income would be enough.
MYTH: The plight of the uninsured doesn?t impact those of us with insurance.
FACT: The cost of uncompensated care for the uninsured contributes significantly to the cost of employer-sponsored coverage.
* Uncompensated care for the uninsured added $922 to the costs of employer-sponsored family coverage and $341 to the costs of employer-sponsored single person coverage in 2005. (8)
MYTH: Government programs don?t impact the cost of private care.
FACT: The continued underpayment of providers by public programs has devastating consequences for families and employers that are struggling to afford healthcare coverage. Low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and physicians lead to significantly higher health insurance costs for consumers and employers. Annual healthcare spending for an average family of four is $1,788 higher than it would be if Medicare, Medicaid and private employers paid hospitals and physicians similar rates, with total provider reimbursement unchanged.
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I can't believe people are for the big healthcare companies raping you up the ass.