The whole thing is a moving target. Provisions are constantly being added, removed (not enough removal though) and amended… to the handful of different and all lengthy bills. But even what is and isn’t can lead to more confusion. For example, what about illegal aliens? They’re included in the 47 million uninsured that we’re supposed to be helping, so since we’re supposed to be helping everyone in that group (and I think the term “universal” gets floated around from time to time) you would think that we would help everyone in the group. Right?
The answer seems to be no. But yes.
While the report found that federal subsidies to obtain health coverage would be restricted to U.S. citizens and legal residents, it also noted that the bill does not specify a citizenship verification system, something that critics say creates a loophole for undocumented immigrants to receive subsidies anyway.
I believe this type of thing is the core of the cost “savings”: low overhead. The government won’t look for fraud. And it will then conclude that since it doesn’t see any fraud, that there isn’t any fraud and that the system is just peachy. Just like Medicare:
[Rep. Mike Holt] answered a question about Medicare fraud by saying that it really doesn’t exist because “people are required to report Medicare fraud” and since “very little fraud is reported” the problem is a “very small percentage.” I guess since very few people turn themselves in to the police for using their cell phones or texting while driving that indicates that those things don’t go on, either. Head, sand.
I also find the numbers that New York Times gives about the uninsured to be less than compelling evidence for broad new governmental powers and programs. Unfortunately I don’t think they’re numbers are additive and that different categories overlap. What stands out?
Some 11 million of the poorest people, mostly low-income children and their parents, are thought to be eligible for public insurance programs but have failed to enroll, either because they do not know they are eligible or are intimidated by the application process.
So nearly one quarter of the problem is that people aren’t enrolled in the government program… and so we’re going to “solve” the problem by creating a new government program that they’re still probably not going to sign up for? Very nice.
Some 9.7 million of the uninsured are not citizens; of those, more than six million may be illegal immigrants, according to informed estimates. None of the pending bills would cover them.
Not covered. Wink wink.
Now if, IF, there’s not tremendous overlap between the two groups, then 44% of the problem is not really being fixed by the new legislation.
Who else?
Some 13 million young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 lack coverage. These are not, for the most part, healthy young professionals making a sensible decision to pay their own minimal medical bills rather than buy insurance that they are unlikely to need. The Kaiser foundation estimates that only 10 percent are college graduates, and only 5 percent have incomes above $60,000 a year, while half have family incomes below $16,000 a year.
The Times uses a little wordplay here to their advantage. The question really isn’t how many of these are “healthy young professionals”. Instead it should be how many are healthy? Really, what is the incidence of serious illness in this group. I suspect it’s pretty low, so how important is insurance really?
I also wonder just who all these people are? Are they college students between 19 and 22 just waiting for their first job? Are they high school dropouts? It would be nice to know the demographics so that I know how much I’m supposed to care.
