Spring Break
What the politicians don't tell you about our uninsured
DEREK SELF
Opinion Writer
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: Opinion
One hundred and two billion dollars, that's what leading health care economist John Gruber estimates a health care plan similar to Sen. Barack Obama's plan would cost the American taxpayers annually.
Compare this to the annual cost of a highly unpopular war averaging $117.6 billion. Sure war costs a lot of money, so go ahead and compare this budget to other departments. The Department of Education has $68.6 billion at hand and the Department of Homeland Security has $50.5 billion.
Sure universal health care sounds like a good idea, but at what cost? Apparently the people pushing for these new socialized government programs aren't paying attention to the falling dollar or our constantly rising debt. Where is our government going to get the money for this new plan? Are we going to ask our friends the Chinese for the money? Even if Obama isn't elected universal health care is a hot topic right now and I wouldn't be surprised if it's introduced in Congress anytime after Pres. George W. Bush leaves the White House.
Another thing to look at with this idea of universal health care is the true facts in what people are saying about America's uninsured. Politicians and people like Michael Moore are saying that more than 46 million Americans are uninsured.
Sure if you look at the 2005 census on that information it says that, but once you look further into the details you discover who exactly makes up that large number.
There are government statistics that show that 45 percent of Americans who are uninsured will once again be insured within four months after job transitions. Even if we push that aside we can still follow the reports and see where the 46 million total comes from. Ten million of the uninsured are illegal aliens, so that takes the number of "Americans" that are uninsured down around 36 million. This isn't data from some random poll either, this comes from our own government's census.
So, 36 million uninsured citizens of the United States is still a large number. As you dive even further into the census data, it gives out even more juicy details of what compiles the data. Mind you, once again this is from the same census report that the politicians are using for their information. Of the uninsured, 8.3 million make between $50,000 and $74,999 annually while 8.74 million make more than $75,000 a year. So why am I, a college student who makes around $900 a month, able to pay a monthly bill to a private insurance company and they aren't?
So now our number is down from 36 million to right around 19 million. That's a fairly small number compared to the original 46 million people that are uninsured. Included in the 19 million are Americans who are eligible for government health programs so that decreases the number further.
So why are politicians using the 46 million number in their plans? Do they, feel that the American people are too stupid to know the real facts and hope they just listen to what they say.
One last thing to look at when deciding if we the American people really want a government run health care and insurance system is who is running it. Do we really want the people that run all of our other government programs so efficiently deciding on how our health care should be?
Compare this to the annual cost of a highly unpopular war averaging $117.6 billion. Sure war costs a lot of money, so go ahead and compare this budget to other departments. The Department of Education has $68.6 billion at hand and the Department of Homeland Security has $50.5 billion.
Sure universal health care sounds like a good idea, but at what cost? Apparently the people pushing for these new socialized government programs aren't paying attention to the falling dollar or our constantly rising debt. Where is our government going to get the money for this new plan? Are we going to ask our friends the Chinese for the money? Even if Obama isn't elected universal health care is a hot topic right now and I wouldn't be surprised if it's introduced in Congress anytime after Pres. George W. Bush leaves the White House.
Another thing to look at with this idea of universal health care is the true facts in what people are saying about America's uninsured. Politicians and people like Michael Moore are saying that more than 46 million Americans are uninsured.
Sure if you look at the 2005 census on that information it says that, but once you look further into the details you discover who exactly makes up that large number.
There are government statistics that show that 45 percent of Americans who are uninsured will once again be insured within four months after job transitions. Even if we push that aside we can still follow the reports and see where the 46 million total comes from. Ten million of the uninsured are illegal aliens, so that takes the number of "Americans" that are uninsured down around 36 million. This isn't data from some random poll either, this comes from our own government's census.
So, 36 million uninsured citizens of the United States is still a large number. As you dive even further into the census data, it gives out even more juicy details of what compiles the data. Mind you, once again this is from the same census report that the politicians are using for their information. Of the uninsured, 8.3 million make between $50,000 and $74,999 annually while 8.74 million make more than $75,000 a year. So why am I, a college student who makes around $900 a month, able to pay a monthly bill to a private insurance company and they aren't?
So now our number is down from 36 million to right around 19 million. That's a fairly small number compared to the original 46 million people that are uninsured. Included in the 19 million are Americans who are eligible for government health programs so that decreases the number further.
So why are politicians using the 46 million number in their plans? Do they, feel that the American people are too stupid to know the real facts and hope they just listen to what they say.
One last thing to look at when deciding if we the American people really want a government run health care and insurance system is who is running it. Do we really want the people that run all of our other government programs so efficiently deciding on how our health care should be?
Be the first to comment on this story