From The Nation:
Apparently the Administration prefers to unleash families into the Darwinian jungle of the private insurance market, where only the wealthiest and healthiest can buy a policy. Public programs like S-CHIP, it argues, "crowd out" insurance sold by WellPoint and United Healthcare, depriving them of profits they earn selling coverage to S-CHIP families. Meanwhile, each year medical insurance consumes a greater share of family income. The truth is that most families can't afford those policies. The price for family coverage now averages $12,000, or about 20 percent of income for a family of four with income at 300 percent of the poverty level.
Families can, of course, buy one of the new bare-bones policies, such as the one sold in Ohio by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield with deductibles ranging from $4,000 to $20,000 ($8,000 to $40,000 if the family uses out-of-network providers). The policy covers only two doctor visits per year, and families must pay 30 percent of any hospital bill after satisfying the deductible. Pity the family whose child suffers recurring strep infections or needs an emergency appendectomy. Insurers also have long lists of health conditions people cannot have if they hope to get coverage. If poor kids have asthma, were born prematurely or are prone to ear infections, they're out of luck.
Source:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/liebeman accessed today.
Between 30% for housing and 20% for health care this essentially means that families have no discretionary income on the bottom half of the economy.
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