Different surveys and reports highlighting significant facts and figures, pertaining to somewhat 'troubled' healthcare in the US, have come to the fore and need due consideration, especially with the Congress aiming at revamping the system and President Barack Obama hoping to sign legislation to the effect before 2009-end.

According to the American Medical Association reports, that the health insurance market in the US is "dangerously concentrated," with mergers having destabilized market efficiency. In the last six-year period, premiums nationwide have jumped a monstrous average of over 87 percent!

While the US Census Bureau reports say that nearly 15 percent of the American population, or almost 46 million people in the US, have no health insurance; Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation reports that only about 63 percent of US employers offer health benefits to workers.

The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports indicate that at $7,421 per head, the Americans spend more per capita on healthcare than any other country, and still get poorer care compared to other industrialized countries having national healthcare plans.

Paul Filson, Connecticut director of Service Employees International Union, said: "There is no real choice or competition in the private health insurance market, and only giving everyone the option of a public health insurance plan will guarantee we get quality, affordable health care we all can count on this year."