Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Who are the 47 million uninsureds?


The answers -- from InsuranceNewsNet -- might surprise you.

70% of the uninsured are in families with at least one full-time worker. 10% have at least one part-time worker. The rest are retired or unemployed.

8.4 million are eligible for government programs but don't know they are, don't know how to sign up or don't have access to the documents that are required.

10.2 million are noncitizens. About 80% of them are legal residents, but many have low-income jobs and can't afford or don't have access to insurance.

9.2 million have household incomes of $75,000 or higher. Some are healthy and don't want coverage. Others can't get it because of preexisting conditions.

7.5 million are aged 19-24 and either have no access to health care, lack money to pay for it or don't think they need it because they are in good health.

Let's not even mention that anyone -- anyone -- can walk into an emergency room and get treated without any insurance whatsoever.

Let's add these up.

 8,400,000 eligible for government programs
10,200,000 aliens
 9,200,000 have incomes of $75,000 or higher
 7,500,000 are aged 19-24, many of whom have elected not to be covered.

...Carry the one... the bottom line is that 35.3 million of the 47 million uninsureds fall into one of the four buckets.

Am I missing something, or does this sound like a lot less dire of a problem than is portrayed by Democrats and the mainstream media (but I repeat myself, again)?

No comments:

Post a Comment