Hillary on Healthcare

Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Report Finding Health Care Premiums in New York Rising Much Faster than Earnings

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made the following statement after the release of a new report by the consumer health organization Families USA comparing increases in health care premiums and earnings in New York.

“The findings of this new report underscore the urgent need to reform our health care system. Over the eight years of the Bush Administration, New Yorkers have seen their health insurance premiums rise more than seven times as fast as their earnings. Across our country premiums are outstripping earnings, but New York has been particularly hard hit, with premiums rising more than 80 percent while earnings only increased by 11 percent. Workers in New York, especially employees of small businesses, are facing higher deductibles and receiving fewer benefits. In short, New Yorkers are paying more for less. Health care costs are consuming a larger and larger portion of family budgets at a time when so many New Yorkers are struggling to put food on the table and put gas in their tanks and the credit crisis threatens our entire economy. And even as health care costs have soared, so have the ranks of the uninsured. More than 2.5 million New Yorkers under age 65, about 15.4 percent, are now without health insurance. These are not just statistics. These are real people facing real and mounting challenges. It is now clearer than ever that we urgently need major reforms to reduce health care costs and ensure quality, affordable care for every single American. We cannot afford to continue down the path of the last eight years. I will continue fighting for this goal until we have the health care system that Americans deserve.”

On my agenda: universal health care, privacy rights, reversing declining incomes for middle income and lower wage earners, and battling misogyny.

Anglachel