by Sarah Stoesz

President

Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

In a new report, the Center for American Progress’s Nayla Kazzi breaks down the current health care crisis and highlights some startling numbers.

Kazzi writes that employers have shed 5.1 million jobs in the last 15 months and estimates that "2.4 million workers have lost the health coverage their jobs provided since the start of the recession,” based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Further, she points out that approximately 1.3 million of these losses have occurred in the last four months. More than 320,000 Americans became uninsured in March alone, which amounts to more than 10,000 workers a day.

Add to that the fact that more than 45 million Americans have no health insurance and an additional 25 million are underinsured, meaning they have insurance, but it does not adequately cover their medical expenses.

The demand for health care is urgent and the value of prevention, a cornerstone of Planned Parenthood services, is self-evident. Planned Parenthood is a preventive health care provider that thousands of low income women and families rely on in our region. We understand that investing in prevention helps reduce health care costs overall. And preventive care will ultimately make coverage more affordable for Americans.

We see the fallout from the economic downturn every day in our clinics across Minnesota. We see women who have lost jobs and the insurance coverage that they rely upon putting off much- needed health care, women who are worried about being laid off opting for longer-term birth control and scrimping to afford the basic health care that many of us take for granted.

We all have a responsibility to fix America’s broken health care system so that it’s affordable, accessible, high quality, comprehensive and culturally relevant.

All of us benefit from healthy communities and healthy families, in which every person has access to high-quality, affordable and confidential health care from a provider of their choice.

Ensuring such access is a critical step in eliminating inexcusable health care disparities experienced by so many in this country. We support health care reform that prioritizes prevention and ensures that all individuals have the information and services they need to stay safe and healthy.

And we must recognize that government can’t do it alone. We need to empower women and their families to make informed decisions about their health care needs. At Planned Parenthood, we’ll continue to work toward meaningful and equitable health care reform and remain steadfast in our commitment to providing affordable, accessible health care to women and families, no matter their ability to pay.