from : kaisernetwork.org Daily Reports.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=11796
Issues Surrounding Sept. 11 Have Overshadowed Congressional Health Care
Agenda, Trafford Says
"The events of Sept. 11 have blown away the health agenda" in Congress,
leaving "little hope" that lawmakers will pass a prescription drug
benefit for seniors, a patients' rights bill or legislation to help the
uninsured, Washington Post columnist Abigail Trafford writes. Although
the Institute of Medicine has reported that an estimated 18,000
individuals die each year "because they lack health insurance and don't
get needed, timely care," the "plight of the uninsured gets very little
attention in Washington," Trafford writes.
Georgetown University professor M. Gregg Bloche said, "If 18,000 people
had been killed in a terrorist attack, we'd be in quite a state."
Trafford writes that "victims of uninsurance" raise "little sign of
outrage beyond the small circle of health care advocates." She adds that
"with each terrorist threat, the public's fear barometer rises," and a
large-scale attack, "though unlikely, becomes more real." However, the
public and lawmakers have "no such dread that the plague of uninsurance
will spread," despite increased health care costs that "mean coverage
will become less affordable," Trafford writes. She concludes, "Covering
the uninsured is a moral imperative. It's also a practical one. Without
action, the health care system will continue to deteriorate" and the
United States will face a larger crisis than Sept. 11 (Trafford,
Washington Post, 6/18).
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