25% of West Virginians had no health insurance ...

[cap]

for part or all of 2001.

ore than 60 percent of them are employed.

“I don’t know why people aren’t out demonstrating in the streets,” Price said. “Don’t they know what’s happening? Don’t they understand what their position is?”

Five years from now, if health-care costs don’t slow down, 60,000 more West Virginians will have no insurance, Mountain State Blue Cross/Blue Shield predicts. Many simply will no longer be able to afford it.

If that happens, the “one in four” will become one in three.

And that includes a former Republican state senator!!!

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Series/Everybody+at+Risk/2003061413

[wuushew]

1. Maybe they will remember that when they are sealed in the voting booth

come next November

[SoCalDem]

2. Why they are not out in the streets..

1. They are told that it's shameful to be unemployed.. It's their fault.. they did not exercise "personal responsibility"

2. People who are unemployed are often so damned depressed and broke, that they do not have the energy to protest..

3. The people who are in their boat are spread out over the whole state.. The cannot afford to travel to get to ONE PLACE, where their numbers would be noticed..(15 guys marching down mainstreet would not raise eyebrows)..

4. People who have been downsized, outsourced, laid off, etc. are often scrambling for odd jobs and fast food work to earn a buck.. They may actually be working more hours for less pay than when they had their decent jobs..

[aquart]

4. It's not only the energy they lack, it's the carfare.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

10. SoCal...

Is that a dancing Christmas pickle at the bottom of your page? What is that?

[SoCalDem]

14. Very observant.. You wiin the prize :)

:)

[sable302]

15. I have another example for you.

My sister and her husband lost their health insuance when he was laid off in the tech bust. They cannot afford insurance on their own, and cannot afford COBRA for everyone and both their kids have serious health problems. One will need heart surgery soon, and has been having seizures (sp?) so he gets to have COBRA while the rest of them do without.

Yet, with all these problems, they have always and will always vote Republican. The husband actually cried when Clinton won in '92 (I was with him so I know). But, you can't convince him that if Clinton got his way, his family wouldn't be in the shape they are in now. Besides, wasn't the whole COBRA thing a Clinton law?

So, my point is that George W Bush himself could come over and kick my brother in law in the crotch, steal his car, and burn his house down and he would still vote for him and blame all his problems on Democrats and Bill Clinton. It's really that simple, and my guess is that a good number of those 25% are exactly the same way.

[whathappened]

3. so true

in all parts of this great country , we have been led like a bunch of sheep by not letting the unions pertect us along our way thru this walk thru life , and now we are seeing the results

[CrownPrinceBandar]

5. Its funny, no... I mean, sad

that people here in WV elected the very mechanism of their despair. Traditionally, WV has been a bastion of Democratic support. However, after a period of two re-elected govs (both who left office in their original terms under a shadow of controversy), and nearly unprecedented economic blight, West Virginians just got tired an thought it was time for a change. So they helped put GW in the WH.

Now with the overhauling of Medicare (Wv has the "oldest" population in the country) and the cutting back of VA benefits, alot of WV citizens will be left out in the cold. The health care sitch will only make things worse. The Bush plan will, as cap said, push the prices for decent healthcare through the roof. And with the annual earnings of most WV workers falling well below the national average,

http://www.bls.gov/ro3/fax_9626.htm

it comes as no surprise that the healthcare situation has becone so dire.

Earnings aside, 1 in 4 people in WV die of cancer every year, heart disease incidence is even greater. We are also suffering from an obesity "epidemic." In an area with such critical health challenges, our support of the Bush presidency, and by association the Bush health plan, we have effectively cut our own throats. And now we bleed for our ignorance.

Anyway, I might be a little partisan on the subject. I am currently one of the many counted among the ranks of West Virginia's unemployed and uninsured. So please, forgive my bias.

[spinbaby]

6. 1 in 4 people in WV die of cancer every year?

Either there's something very wrong with that statistic or no one will be left in WV in four years.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

9. Well...

You're not accounting for the birth rate. But I can see how that stat might be misleading without a link. So here it is:

http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/Cancer/default.htm

I think the page illustrates the problem pretty clearly.

[spinbaby]

12. 1 in 4 DEATHS is from cancer

One in four deaths every year is from cancer. That's a whole different can of worms than one in four dies from cancer every year.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

18. Sorry, my bad. Confusing syntax.

At least I gave a source.

[area51]

7. Also,

I heard that 25% of Texans have no health insurance.

[denverbill]

8. Hmm.

"And that includes a former Republican state senator!!!"

By that, I hope he means 'former Republican' in addition to 'former state senator'.

Good article.

[Woodstock]

11. maybe at 75% uninsured & 95% unemployed they will see the light

like all the other morans, that's what it will take

they are borg plugged into the propaganda machine

[Woodstock]

16. this is no dig at WV people, this is a dig at borg Bush loving morans

I hope this came off the right way. I'm particularly fed up with sheep trotting along happily to the slaughter today.

[OneTwentyoNine]

13. Seems like most bitch more about guns and abortion....

Thats the way they are in Kansas. Hell these politicians could want their left nut and it would be ok as long as they voting for guns and against abortion.

I can't believe these people will vote for leaders time and time again over two issues like that and literally ignore other issues,yet they do.

David

[CrownPrinceBandar]

19. Believe it...

Although, I have no facts to back it up, I believe guns had a major impact on the election of Bush in WV. Many folks that I talked to cited the fear of the Democrats taking away their guns. And that's just like to kryptonite to Superman in a rural state like WV.
The NRA has done their job well here. By instilling enough fear into folks that registration will inevitibally equal criminalization and seizure of said firearms, the gun lobby may have swung enough votes to the right to make a real difference.
But as I said before I have no facts to back this up, just what I have heard from the locals.

[economic justice]

17. Scandalous

Health Care (or lack thereof) is the most scandalous domestic issue in our country. This issue ALONE should galvanize all in our party toward ousting Bush and Co.