Will the push for universal health-care gain momentum in the aftermath of September 11, with tens of thousands of family members grieving and trying to replace lost income and health benefits? After all, a national health plan nearly passed into law for the first time during the post-Depression New Deal years of FDR, and Blue Cross Blue Shield was initiated as a nonprofit in Rhode Island by state law in 1939. Medicare was finally created in the Vietnam era, with Medicaid coming shortly thereafter.

Matthew Penfield, a Providence-based organizer for the Coalition for Consumer Justice (CCJ), believes public anxiety about the post-September 11 world extends to health-care. "A lot more folks are recognizing the insecurity of quality health-care," he says. Penfield cites double-digit increases in insurance premiums and similar increases expected for the future. Given the huge hit taken by the insurance sector, it's reasonable to assume that health insurance costs could rise even more.

Even so, says Harvard Medical School's Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, founder of Physicians for a National Health Plan, a universal health insurance plan is unlikely to move forward. Congress is focusing on the war and little else, Woolhandler says. And she's right -- domestic policy priorities have been reordered and health-care has been put on the back burner.

Meanwhile, the children and spouses of September 11 victims often earn too much to qualify for Medicare and are decades from Medicare eligibility, yet they can't necessarily afford the monthly premiums of $400 to $1000 for self-insurance. Some World Trade Center firms, like Cantor Fitzgerald, whose more than 700 missing employees left more than 1500 children, are promising 10 years of health insurance coverage at the same level as before the attacks, says spokesman Jeff Siegel.

Of course, charitable help has been coming by the billions. The airline bailout bill, or S1450 -- which protects airlines from lawsuits by giving $100,000 to each victim's families in exchange for not suing United or American Airlines -- doesn't include any provision of health insurance, however, and some of these families may be scrambling once the 36-month COBRA period expires.

And although this could mean that thousands of additional people face obstacles to health-care, it would just be just a small percentage of the 43 million Americans who lack health insurance.

Issue Date: November 23 - 29, 2001