Healthcare by the Numbers

Has anyone noticed that the number of uninsured in America has risen steadily as the democratic presidential campaign have rounded the final turn and headed for the home stretch? When the campaigns started six months ago the number of uninsured Americans stood at about 30m - at least according to the stump speeches. The past six months must have been really bad ones for Americans and healthcare because the number of uninsured Americans apparently has swelled to 47m, or as the crack journalists at Rueters reproted today, about one sixth of Americans.



I think we can agree on one thing, the number of structurally uninsured Americans is well under 47m. I have seen analysis by objective groups who estimate that the real number of uninsured Americans is less than half of the "campaign" figure of 47m. For argument sake, let's agree to a very high end number, that real Americans who are living and working normal lives, but without any health insurance is 25m. That represents, in Rueters terms, just over 8 % of the population of the United States. Even at inflated 47m number, which we all know is wrong, the percentage of uninsured Americans would stand at just over 15%.



So what problem are we really trying to solve? Depending on the numbers you chose to believe, between 85% and 92% of Americans have health insurance. The number is more likely closer to 94% of all Americans.



Let me get this straight, we are going to raise the crap out of our taxes, create a government program whose size would warm the heart of the even the most ardent supporter of the collapsed Soviet Union, and potentially tank the US economy so that we can cover the uninsured 4-8% of the American population. Has anyone in Washington ever heard of diminishing marginal returns?



I really think that this is the democrats game plan...if everyone is not prosperous, then no one will be prosperous. Let's tank the entire American health system and the US economy along with it so we can offer healthcare to the small minority of Americans who do not have it. (Legitimate estimates of the uninsured run as low as 8m or 3% of the US population) Is this really what we want? Trashing the health care system that is the envy of the world so we can all get saddled with a government run or mandated system? You have to be kidding me, unfortunately, neither Hilliary or Obama are kidding. They want us all to live in shared mediocrity...while they live high on the hog.