Friday, April 28, 2006
A group of health professionals and the advocates are calling on Iowans to take notice as "Cover the Uninsured Week" begins Monday. Pamela Dickson is the deputy director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which is the national organizer of the week.
Dickson says nearly 47-million Americans are living without health insurance. In Iowa she says more than 275-thousand are living without insurance, including 42-thousand children.
Dickson says you don't have to look very far to find someone who doesn't have health insurance. She says, "We know them, they're our friends, they're our neighbors, and perhaps even members of our own family. They're working Americans who teach our children, run our local businesses, and care for our aging parents. They are the faces of America." Dickson says there's often a stereotype which people who are out of work are the only ones who don't have insurance, but she says that's not true.
Dickson says eight-out-of-10 of the uninsured Americans are in working families, but health care coverage is beyond their reach. Dickson says a lack of health care coverage leads to many other problems. Dickson says, "We know that people without insurance, live sicker and die sooner. They don't get the medical care and prescription drugs they need, leaving at serious risk for health problems or worse." She says the Institute of Medicine estimates that over 18-thousand people die each year because they didn't have insurance to get the care they needed.
She says it's a quite unique opportunity to speak up and tell our national leaders that the number of uninsured is too high, and the consequences are too serious. Dickson says events are planned all next week to bring more awareness to the plight of the uninsured.
posted by kanth
@ 1:00 AM
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