More Health Care Stats
President Obama argues that the United States needs a government-run health plan in order to provide coverage to the nation’s 46 million uninsured. In a recent column, “The Stealth Single-Payer Agenda”, George F. Will deconstructs this statistic ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/19/AR2009061902334.html . Here’s what he finds:
About 20 million are without coverage temporarily, in many cases because they are between jobs. In six months they will have employment plus benefits and be replaced among the uninsured by someone else.
10 million are not U.S. Citizens.
14 million could sign up for existing government programs such as Medicaid, but choose not to.
9 million belong to households with income greater than $75,000 per year and could buy insurance on their own, but choose not to.
Mr. Will concludes that the arguments relying on the 46 million statistic are “feeble”. The Logic Critic awards him…
4 Blades - Flawless.
posted by Li Kim Grebnesi at
8:24 PM
2 Comments:
Li,
The health insurance market in the US is not free, it is tied to employers. That distorts the market in some significant ways. A single-payer system will at least have the benefit of fixing that problem.
On the other hand, single-payer insurance that can be supplemented privately causes much less distortion than single-provider health care, which is really awful, and no comparison at all.
Ins industry skims 30% off the top, executive salaries and bonuses, shareholders' profits, administrative and overhead costs, as opposed to Medicare which has a 3% administrative cost. In today's economy 6 months is very optimistic. Also, more and more small businesses are offering only the employee insurance, not a family plan, leaving the family to pay the additional premium. Those who make over $75,000? Lets see, after paying the mortgage, necessary bills, gasoline, car payment, they say we need to save for retirement, private school, college, groceries: yes we have $1000 extra for health insurance premiums, and don't forget the dental and orthodontist bills. Lets save 27%, and make health insurance affordable for all, with easy and uncomplicated access to preventive care.
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