The Health care debate - 47 million uninsured?:

One point at the very top. There is a difference between Health Care and Health Care Insurance. No one in the United States is denied health care. Hospitals are not allowed to turn people down in the case of an emergency. Now, I will admit that may not be the best way to treat health issues, but don't let anyone say that they cannot get health care.

Be that as is may, this is not an discussion about health care but rather health care insurance. The legislation currently being considered in Congress now provides, depending on the version you want to look at, nationalized health care or at the very least a "public" health care insurance option.

The rationale for this move toward government take-over or at least government involvement in health care insurance is the figure frequently being tossed around about 47 million uninsured Americans. Let's break that down just a bit.

First of all, there are somewhere between 10 and 12 million illegal aliens in the U. S. Is it the intention of Congress that we Americans subsidize insurance for 12 million people who are illegally living in the U. S.? If not, then the 47 million is really somewhere between 35 and 37 million.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan body used to estimate impact of legislation has stated that thirty percent of the uninsured have been offered insurance by employers and have turned down that coverage. That is another 14.1 million who could have insurance but have, of their own free will, chosen not too. So combined with the illegal aliens our truly uninsured American population is somewhere in the vicinity of the low 20 millions.

The CBO has concluded that the House version of the bill now under consideration will cost 1.5 trillion dollars. If we conclude that the real number of uninsured is 21 million, that works out to $71,428 per uninsured. You mean to tell me there isn't a better solution than spending $71,000 per person to solve this problem?

And this whole discussion begs the question about individual responsibility. Are we really going to demand that everyone is required, by federal law, to have a health insurance policy? What about the young man or women in their twenties who has no health issues and is trying to build their wealth (or see the world, or go to grad school, or buy a car so they can get to a job, or anything number of other money necessary things), are we really going to make these people give up their dream so they can have health insurance policy they may not use for ten years? And what coverage will be required? Coverage up to $100 or up to $1,000,000. Must it pay for first dollar coverage, or can they have a $10,000 deductible? Wow, there is no limit to the questions that arise and the regulations that will be imposed to implement such a national policy!

These bills, like the stimulus bills and the Cap & Trade bill are thousands of pages long. The CBO when asked to testify before Congress admitted that even they have not been able to completely understand the bills contents nor it's ultimate impact. Why then, the rush to pass legislation that is not and cannot be completely understood?

I will offer a couple of alternative suggestions to solving some of these issues in my next blog.