<<<Research shows that many people who don't have insurance actually can afford it, just don't buy it, because their health is excellent and they don't care to spend the money, and that many families eligible for programs like SCHIP don't enroll.
vimo.com;
This report does a terrific job in trying to prove your point. They use graphs, loaded statistics and right wing talking points to reinforce this belief.
"based on the Census data, the National Center for Politcal Analysis (NCPA) estimates that a sizable portion of the uninsured population earns $50,000 a year or more or qualify for state benefits. In theory ...about 32 million people or 68 percent of the uninsured, could easily obtain coverage but have chosen to forego insurance. That means about 94 percent of United State residents either have health coverage or access to it."
They try very hard to give the impression that most of the uninsured have high incomes (willing to gamble that they can get away without paying for insurance) or are just too lazy to obtain coverage that they easily qualify for.
But even if you accept all the distortion and obfuscation, that leaves 18 million peopleuninsured. "The remaining 6 percent live in households that earn less than $50K annually. This group does not qualify for healthcare or medicaid and (arguably <their word>) earns too little to easily afford expensive family plans costing more than $12,000.00 per year".
And where does the 5.6 million veterans and their family without access to healthcare fit into this picture.
"The new study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, estimated that in 2004 nearly 1.8 million veterans were uninsured and unable to get care in veterans’ facilities. An additional 3.8 million members of their households faced the same predicament. All told, this group made up roughly 12 percent of the huge population of uninsured Americans."
What difference does it make that your arguement is with the number (47 million) that the census bureau defines as uninsured and that by using a definition that is more to your liking and the number turns out to be only 18 million.
18 million just happens to be a greater number than the combined population of these 18 states plus the District of Columbia:
Arkansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming.
These are people that live one sickness away from disaster. |
