Health care by the (alarming) numbers

This Sunday, the U.S. House of Representatives will likely be voting on the health care bill.

The Republicans keep claiming that health care reform will be too costly. However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office disagrees, estimating that the bill, if passed, would actually reduce the federal deficit by $130 billion over its first 10 years, and by $1.2 trillion in its second decade!

Meantime, here are some other -- more important -- numbers to consider, summarized (and slightly edited) from the White House website's "Health Reform by the Numbers" blog section:

• $1,115 -- The average premium for employer-sponsored family coverage per month in 2009. Annually, that amounts to $13,375, or roughly the yearly income of someone working a minimum wage job.

• And if nothing is done to reform our broken health care system, a recent survey found that over the next ten years, out-of-pocket expenses for Americans with health insurance could increase 35 percent in every state in the country.

• 8 -- The number of people every minute who are denied coverage, charged a higher rate, or otherwise discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition.

• 8 -- Also the number of lobbyists hired by special interests to influence health reform for every member of Congress in 2009.

• 625 -- The number of people who lost their health insurance every hour in 2009.

• 41 -- The number of leading economists -- including three Nobel Prize winners -- who sent a letter to President Obama and Congress last week urging the swift passage of comprehensive health insurance reform to curb skyrocketing health care costs.

• 41 -- Also the percentage of adults under the age of 65 who accumulated medical debt, had difficulty paying medical bills, or struggled with both during a recent one-year period.

• 1 in every six dollars in the U.S. economy is spent on health care today.

• If we do nothing, in 30 years, 1 out of every three dollars in our economy will be tied up in the health care system.

• If you’re an American under the age of 65, there’s roughly a 50/50 chance that you will find yourself without coverage at some point in the next decade.

• 9 -- The number of states and the District of Columbia where there is still no specific law that makes it illegal for insurers to reject applicants who are survivors of domestic violence by citing the history of domestic violence as a pre-existing condition.

• 3 million -- The decrease in the number of middle-income earners who obtained health insurance from their employers from 2000 to 2008.

• And 3 times is how much faster health care premiums are rising compared to wages.

>> Read more about these numbers.

And now I'll add my own number to the list:

• 100 -- The percentage of Americans who deserve high-quality, affordable health care.

After all, health care should be considered a human right, not a privilege reserved for the wealthy.