The unemployment problem can rapidly become a health care crisis for the country.  With millions of people who are uninsured the swelling number of employees being laid off and  losing their health care could create a terrible burden for society. Yes, there is COBRA but the price of COBRA is outside the realm of possibility for many of the unemployed. If unemployment continues to rise we will likely see emergency rooms burdened even more and medical bills creating a mountain of debt that could end in bankruptcy for many families.

I believe it’s time to take a long hard look at universal health care.   Unless we, as a nation, are willing to let people die from lack of medication and health care we are going to  have to find an alternative system.

By Theresa Tamkins

Only about one in 10 workers who lose their job opt to keep their employer-sponsored health insurance through the safety-net program COBRA, most likely because the premiums are too expensive, according to an analysis released Friday by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports independent research on health care issues.

Experts worry that the highest unemployment rate in 16 years, combined with a health care system dependent on employer-sponsored health insurance, is a recipe for disaster, and will swell the ranks of the uninsured particularly if people aren’t using COBRA. About 46 million people in the United States (18 percent of those under 65) lacked health insurance in 2007.

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It’s a problem that “is not going away,” says Davis, “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that we’re going to go to 8.3 percent unemployed in 2009 and 9 percent in 2010,” says Davis. (The unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in December.)

She notes that each percentage point increase in the unemployment rate leads to a 1.1 million increase in the number of uninsured.

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