The Campaign for an American Solution is travelling to states across the country to facilitate conversations about how to expand health care coverage to every American, reduce costs and increase the quality of care. First stop was Columbus, OH.

Like every other state, Ohio struggles with ensuring everyone has health care coverage and making health care more affordable.

• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation:
• 1.2 million—11 percent—of Ohioans are uninsured, compared to 16 percent across the U.S.
• 7 percent of children in Ohio are uninsured compared to 12 percent nationally.
• Health care costs in Ohio grew by an average of 6 percent per year between 1991 and 2004.
• The average inpatient hospital cost in Ohio was $1,773 per day in 2006, up from $1,198 in 1999.
• 14 percent of nonelderly males and 11% of nonelderly females were uninsured in 2006.

In an article on how lapses in health insurance, pre-existing conditions and chronic illnesses are contributing to Ohio's uninsured rate, The Akron Beacon Journal reported that 1.4 million people—about one in eight—in the state are uninsured. Two to three percent of those are uninsured because they are between jobs, the article says.

A report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the State Health Access Data Center at the University of Minnesota found that 62.8 percent of employers in Ohio offer health care.

Please view highlights from the first stop on our Listening Tour with uninsured Americans in Columbus, Ohio:

Please view the complete video from the first stop on our Listening Tour with uninsured Americans in Columbus, Ohio: