Labor Union Blog

Can this patient be saved?

The patient is the U.S. health care system, and the answer is being debated right now on Capitol Hill and across the nation.

Now you have an opportunity to make your voice heard and help shape health care reform to meet the needs of working families.

The AFL-CIO and Working America want to know about your experiences with America’s health care system—what’s working, what isn’t, what costs too much and more.

We’ve launched the 2009 Health Care for America Survey and urge you to give us your input here.

Tallied results of the survey, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and its 2.5 million-member community affiliate Working America, will be shared with national and state leaders and the media. Congress, the administration and the media are hearing plenty about health care reform from drug makers and insurance companies—they need to hear from working families, too.

Millions of working families are paying a steep price for a health care system that’s just not working anymore: 

• Forty-one percent of working-age Americans had problems paying medical bills in 2007, and four in 10 of those used all their savings to pay their health care bills.
• About half the families that file for bankruptcy do so at least in part because of health care debt.
• In December and January, nearly 50 million people had no health insurance. About 14,000 people a day lost their coverage during those months.
• Uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults who have insurance.

The survey asks specific questions about your household’s health care coverage and costs. Does you family have coverage? Does your health insurance cover the care you need at a price you can afford? Has an insurance company denied you coverage or treatment because of a pre-existing condition? What should be included in health care reform?

The 2009 survey also provides an opportunity to tell your health care story in your own words—in writing or in a video.

While individual survey responses are confidential, the AFL-CIO will share the compiled results with Congress, the Obama administration and state lawmakers, as well as print and broadcast media. Last year, more than 26,000 people completed the 2008 survey, and 7,500 shared poignant stories about their families’ health care experiences. That survey gained widespread media coverage and kept health care at the top of the national agenda during the 2008 elections.

The 2009 Health Care for America Survey is expected to receive even more responses and media attention as health care reform moves forward.

Take the survey here.

Encourage your friends, co-workers and family members to do so as well. No one can make America’s leaders understand what working families go through in today’s health care system like you can.