41. That's the number of leading economists -- including three Nobel Prize winners -- who sent a letter to President Obama and Congress yesterday urging swift passage of health reform to rein in out-of-control costs. It is also the percentage of adults under age 65 who struggled with medical debt, had trouble paying medical bills, or faced both during a recent year.
In his speech earlier this week in Pennsylvania, President Obama talked about one person who's part of that 41%:
“Laura Klitzka -- this is a friend of mine, somebody I met when I was campaigning in Wisconsin -- Green Bay, Wisconsin. She’s a young mother; she’s got two kids. She thought she had beaten her breast cancer but later discovered it had spread to her bones. She and her husband had insurance, but their medical bills still landed them with tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt. And now she spends her time worrying about that debt when all she wants to do is spend time with her children. I just talked to Laura this past weekend, and let me tell you, she knows that the time for reform is right now.”
Today's number is the fourth in the White House's series of a number released each day to make the case for why we need to pass reform. If you're on Twitter, you can spread the word by changing your icon to today's number and updating your status here.
You can also check out some of the previous numbers from the White House's "Health Reform By the Numbers" campaign.
Comments are closed for this post.
