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Dept. HHS Director Sebelius released a state by state report outlining these factors.
I post them here for easy perusal.

HOOSIERS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO

* Roughly 4.1 million people in Indiana get health insurance on the job, where family premiums average $13,252, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.

* Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 100 percent in Indiana.

* Household budgets are strained by high costs: 11 percent of middle-income Indiana families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.

* High costs block access to care: 13 percent of people in Indiana report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.

* Indiana businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $1200 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.

AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN INDIANA

* 12 percent of people in Indiana are uninsured, and 71 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.

* The percent of Indianians with employer coverage is declining: from 71 to 66 percent between 2000 and 2007.

* Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 69 percent of Indiana businesses,9 only 34 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006 -- down 11 percent since 2000.

* Choice of health insurance is limited in Indiana. WellPoint Inc. (BCBS) alone constitutes 60 percent of the health insurance market share in Indiana, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 75 percent.

* Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Indiana, premiums can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.

HOOSIERS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE

* The overall quality of care in Indiana is rated as “Weak.”

* Preventative measures that could keep Indianians healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:

o 15 percent of children in Indiana are obese.

o 24 percent of women over the age of 50 in Indiana have not received a mammogram in the past two years.

o 41 percent of men over the age of 50 in Indiana have never had a colorectal cancer screening.

o 72 percent of adults over the age of 65 in Indiana have received a flu vaccine in the past year.

The need for reform in Indiana and across the country is clear. Indiana families simply can’t afford the status quo and deserve better. President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass health reform this year that reduces costs for families, businesses and government; protects people’s choice of doctors, hospitals and health plans; and assures affordable, quality health care for all Americans

The Report can be read in it's entirety here: http://www.healthreform.gov/

Current Mood:

No Idea

I volunteered at the Obama campaign in Indianapolis yesterday. They had me cold calling people with a ponderous script.

I weep for the collective IQ. I spoke with some of the most ill informed, racist, willfully stupid people it has ever been my misfortune to speak with!

I made more than one hundred calls. I spoke with a retired Republican, the high point of the day, who was unhappy with the direction, and the chicanery the Republicans were taking. He will vote Obama. I spoke with three older women, each with that Hoosier twang that told me Obama did not know what he was talking about. When asked to explain, they hung up.

I spoke to a gentleman that said "Aint no way 'Merikuh gunna elect no nigra to pres'dent"
Seriously. This is a direct quote phonetically spelled to match his quaint dialect. (I use quaint as a euphemism for ignorant trailer trash, Republicans call them "The Base")

When I told him that America had already voted for him in large numbers to win the primary, he said: "Them Jews and nigras voted him in, theys init together" He then proceeded to tell me what will happen to all us "Nigra luvin Jews when the Demkrat party is remooved"

My last call was mind bogglingly sad. The citizen called Obama's campaign illegal, called me a terrorist and hung up the phone. I called her three more times just to be a dick, but she never picked up again.

Welcome to Indiana! Where the Low Information voters outnumber the rest of us. Just like in every red state!

Current Mood:

Huh?

Let's take a look at some recent events in Indiana's second congressional district. In 2006 reactionary Democrat Joe Donnelly beat out right wing extremist Chris Chocola (54-46%), and then went on to create a record of bootlicking and kowtowing to Republicans, and voting more frequently to rubber stamp the Bush agenda than any other Democrat except 3 truly wretched Dixiecrats-- Jim Marshall (GA), Nick Lampson (TX) and John Barrow (GA).

Ever the nutbag, Chocola says Donnelly still isn't far right enough and he's trying to get the seat back. However, someone even further right than Donnelly OR Chocola-- over the edge Anti-Semite, Racist and shithead attorney Tony Zirkle-- doesn't think either of them is far enough right and he's engaged in a vicious primary battle with Chocola.

So in pursuit of his goal of being the next congressman to represent IN-02 Zirkle chose Hitler's birthday to address a Nazi Party meeting in Chicago. I think McCain and ALL Republicans running this year, should say where they stand on their party's candidate addressing the Nazi faithful.

I know, I know... McCain says he doesn't always agree with all the ideas of the people who endorse him. He just likes Zirkle's other ideas, the ones about Jews and African-Americans screwing young white Christian girls in porn films; that's Zirkle's real passion and what has driven him insane and into Republican politics.

Zirkle said he feels he was misunderstood. His real mission, he said, is to rid the country of pornography, and that's what he was saying at the ANSWP gathering. So how did his comment about Jews fit in?

"Most of the male porn stars were Jewish at the beginning," Zirkle explained.

"Now the male porn stars are mostly black, he claimed, and the women who appear in pornographic works tend to be "young, white, Christian women."
"I don't hate all Jews, just the ones sexing our White Christian Women"!

If people think he is targeting the Jews, he said, they are misinterpreting his position. He is targeting, Zirkle said, the "porn dragon" that inspires Jews to get involved in pornography.

In defense of Zirkle, he says he'll speak to any group, not just Nazis. "I'll speak before any group that invites me," Zirkle said Monday.

Zirkle received 30 percent of the vote in the 2006 primary, losing to incumbent Chris Chocola, who was defeated in the general election. Zirkle said Tuesday that winning the election is not his primary goal.

What is his primary goal? France? 30% of Hoosiers in the 2nd district voted for this dick, 30%!
No wonder the Jeremiah Wright thing wont go away, there are crackers in this country afraid that Obama is going to have sex with white women!

"My primary purpose is to educate and inform," Zirkle said.

Sure.......anything you say. America is one of the four countries in the WORLD where being a Nazi is not an international war crime. Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina are the others.