Bush (DODO*) To Workers re Health Insurance: You're on Your Own, Suckers

Health Costs Soar as Sharply as Candidates' Plans Diverge: "The relentless rise in healthcare costs may now be America's most pressing domestic problem, at once a threat to the economy, family budgets and the social safety net. It's also a window into one of the clearest choices facing voters in November."

Since 2000, health insurance premiums have soared by 59%, much faster than in the late 1990s, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's authoritative annual survey. [--snip--]

Since 2000, wages have grown only one-fifth as fast as health insurance costs. On average, workers now pay more than $220 a month to insure their families. [--snip--]

The number of Americans receiving healthcare on the job has dropped every year since President Bush took office. Public programs, such as Medicaid, have picked up part of the slack, but not all. The result is that the number of Americans without health insurance has increased to nearly 45 million, up almost 5.2 million since 2000. [--snip--]

By contrast, Bush's agenda encourages further movement away from the group-based system toward one in which individuals increasingly obtain insurance on their own.

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders