Part III: More Thoughts On The Healthcare Bill

We in America actually have quite a bit of socialized medicine.

Not only are there the free clinics (some private non-profit, some government), but we also have the Veterans Administration health care system for veterans and their dependents.

Then we have Medicare, which is government health care “insurance” for the elderly and disabled.

Then there is a joint federal/state government program called Medicaid, which is health care “insurance” for low income households and individuals.

And finally there is SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.

Many of the so-called uninsured in this country are actually people who qualify for Medicare, Medicaid or SCHIP and just have not signed up for it.

In fact, one of the biggest myths being perpetrated by the mainstream media and power hungry politicians on both sides of the isle is this figure of 45-50 million Americans having no health insurance.

According to the Census Bureau report “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005,” it puts the initial number of uninsured people living in the country at 46.577 million.

A closer look at that report reveals the Census data include 9.487 million people who are “not a citizen.” Subtracting the 10 million non-Americans, the number of uninsured Americans falls to roughly 37 million.

But according to the same Census report, there are 8.3 million uninsured people who make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year and 8.74 million who make more than $75,000 a year. That’s roughly 17 million people who ought to be able to “afford” health insurance because they make substantially more than the median household income of $46,326.

Subtracting non-citizens and those who can afford their own insurance but choose not to purchase it, about 20 million people are left – less than 7 percent of the population. And many of those would qualify for Medicaid and Medicare if they would but apply.

So, to fix a seeming health care coverage gap for much less than 7 percent of the population, the Federal government is proposing becoming a massive new Federal government competitor to all private-sector insurers (in addition to the 2 we already have), but this time, they are going to pass a tsunami of new laws and regulations on private-sector insurers that will only “ensure” their demise – except for maybe all but the most wealthy Americans and, of course, Congress – who has already said they will not opt into the same system all American’s will be REQUIRED (read that FORCED) to be on.