Uninsured Workers Ranks Grow As Manufacturing Base Erodes In U.S.

One bitter legacy of the regressive economy is the growing ranks of uninsured workers. As high paying manufacturing jobs permanently leave to labor cheap Mexico($1.50 an hour average labor) or China(24-40cents an hour labor), and the economy moves to a so-called "service economy". Nationwide many working people, working at lower wage jobs that do not offer benefits or trapped in the "part time" labor trap that does not offer the full benefits of full time employees, report not being able to see a doctor when sick or having a regular doctor.

Data from the Center For Disease Control, paints a bleak picture of many workers without health insurance coverage. In Bush's own Texas, 27% of adults employed have no health insurance. In other states the figures are also a human tragedy: New Mexico and Louisiana, 23%, Florida 22%, Montana and Oklahoma, 21%, Nevada and Arkansas 20%. In fact every state with the highest percentage of uninsured workers is ironically a "red state" won by Bush in November, while every state won by John Kerry or "blue states"also happen to have the lowest percentage of uninsured workers. These include Minnesota at 7%, and Hawaii, Delaware and the District Of Columbia with 9% of adult workers who are uninsured. The irony in these statisics is that voters in the "red states" did not vote for pocketbook issues like the critical need for health insurance coverage or higher paying more worthwhile employment.

And nationwide, 41% of all uninsured adults have reported not being able to see a doctor due to lack of money or insurance coverage within the past 12 months according to CDC data. In the the Western states of Oregon, 613,000 or 17.2% of adults do not have health insurance. In Washington state, 944,000 or 15.5% do not have health insurance coverage.

The CDC data paints a bleak picture of a regressive economy that is not totally apparent within unemployment and Labor Department data. The Bush Administration data only brushes the surface by illustrating the number of adults with or without work, but does not offer much insight into the quality of work, the wages paid or benefits offered.

The right to health care should not be a privilege, but a basic right for all Americans, adult and child, employed or not. This is a moral crisis that deserves change. It is a moral outrage for our nation not to solve this problem and make health care a basic right for all.