WorldNetDaily features an article about the Business and Media Institute which says Americans have been lied to (surprise) about the number of uninsured in our country:
President Bush, Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore and much of the mainstream media are incorrect when they claim the number of Americans without health insurance to be 40 to 50 million, with the actual number possibly under 10 million.
So says the Business and Media Institute, a Virginia-based division of the Media Research Center, a nonprofit watchdog organization designed to bring balance and responsibility to the media.
"The actual total is open to debate," says BMI analyst Julia Seymour. "But there are millions of people who should be excluded from that [high] tally, including: those who aren't American citizens, people who can afford their own insurance, and people who already qualify for government coverage but haven't signed up."
She notes government statistics also show 45 percent of people without insurance are not completely in dire straits, as they'll have coverage again within four months after switching jobs.
"Accounting for all those factors, one prominent study places the total for the long-term uninsured as low as 8.2 million – a very different reality than the media and national health care advocates claim," said Seymour.
The BMI report notes the number of the uninsured who are not U.S. citizens is nearly 10 million on its own, invalidating all the claims of 40-plus million "Americans" without health insurance.
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"'Accounting for all those factors, one prominent study places the total for the long-term uninsured as low as 8.2 million – a very different reality than the media and national health care advocates claim,' said Seymour."
From the Kaiser Family Foundation report, "The Uninsured: A Primer" (October 2006): "The majority of uninsured adults (59%) have gone without coverage for a period of at least two years" (p.5).
The KFF does use the 2005 stat that "46.1 million Americans under the age of 65 lacked health insurance" (p. 3)
"The BMI report notes the number of the uninsured who are not U.S. citizens is nearly 10 million on its own, invalidating all the claims of 40-plus million "Americans" without health insurance."
From the Kaiser Family Foundation's report again: "The large majority of uninsured (80%) are native or naturalized U.S. citizens . . . studies show that new immigrants are not primarily responsible for the growth in the overall uninsured population mainly because they comprise a small share of the total U.S. population" (p. 4).
"The BMI report notes the number of the uninsured who are not U.S. citizens is nearly 10 million on its own, invalidating all the claims of 40-plus million "Americans" without health insurance."
From the Kaiser Family Foundation's report again: "The large majority of uninsured (80%) are native or naturalized U.S. citizens . . . studies show that new immigrants are not primarily responsible for the growth in the overall uninsured population mainly because they comprise a small share of the total U.S. population" (p. 4).
Bob, since the WorldNetDaily report you quote misrepresents sources like the Kaiser Family Foundation, I hope you will do a little research yourself on their sources. Reports like this one are a wealth of factual information about the uninsured in America. I'm sure you would appreciate the KFF's dedication to painting an accurate picture of the problem of the uninsured in our country.
Since November 2004, my co-author and I have been trying to spread this message. The uninsured numbers used by those who favor government health care are inflated. They are used to prick our hearts so that we feel obligated to pay more taxes to support "those without health care." Fact is, even those who are truly uninsured (about 3-6% of the population) can still access the world's best health care system at little or no cost to them.
A 2004 Minnesota Department of Health Study showed that almost the entire increase in uninsured is due to temporary or seasonal workers who were born in a foreign country. At least 33 percent of the uninsured are immigrants.
And the Census Bureau's June report now puts the number at 43.6 million, though they have claimed for years that it is 45, 46, or 47 million. Media Research Center's claim that the real number of hardcore uninsured is more like 10 million is a correct assertion.
This is a critical argument because it is being used to justify the imposition of a government health care system. Ask anyone what quality of care will be delivered by a Federal Medical Administration (maybe called FeMA). That would be a disastor.
Check freemarkethealthcare.com for resources like Your Health Matters, What You Need to Know About US Health Care, and FACTS: Not Fiction, what really ails US health care.
Erin, the KFF report you cited, admits many people choose not to purchase health insurance. There are also many who are already eligible for socialized medicine solutions like Medicaid, but don't avail themselves of it. There are some people out there who simply don't want to play along with the crazy game that health care has become these days. I have had and still do have family members that fit this category: they don't have health insurance by choice. And they pay their bills out of their own pocket as they go.
What I find disturbing is how liberals use the uninsured (and "the children" especially) as an emotional football to try and score a "touchdown" for fully nationalized health care in America--something that violates both the constitution and the spirit of the American way.
Life isn't fair, sometimes. And only liberals believe that it can be made fair (by legalized plunder from other people's wallets). Even they eventually have to face reality, as the Soviet Union did, and as they're finding in socialized countries like Britain and Canada.
Read your history, Bob: the Soviet Union didn't collapse because of universal health care; it collapsed because of huge military expenditures (gee, and which policy do you and Bush prefer?).
Or, you could argue that the Soviet Union collapsed because of isolated, power-hungry leaders unable to see beyond their ideology to recognize real, practical solutions to people's problems (again, gee, which sounds more like you and Bush?).
I didn't say the Soviet Union collapsed from nationalized health care, though it was undoubtedly part of the equation. And their inability to keep up with our military surge also had a big hand in it (I was stationed at one of the Ground Launched Cruise Missile GLCM bases overseas that brought them to the bargaining table, then to their knees, so I got to see some of that up close).
But it was ultimately the philosophy that government could be the be-all and end-all of everything, and in doing so robbed its citizens of their freedom, that brought them down.
Small government and personal responsibility are what I want, and in some measure, I believe Bush wants that, too.
“A 2004 Minnesota Department of Health Study showed that almost the entire increase in uninsured is due to temporary or seasonal workers who were born in a foreign country. At least 33 percent of the uninsured are immigrants.”
Hmm, that’s interesting, Author Dave, in light of what MN Public Radio reported in July 2006. Did the reason for the increase in uninsured in MN really change that much in one year?
"The Minnesota Department of Health report, released last year, shows the state's uninsured rate has reached 6.7 percent. The department says the increase in uninsured Minnesotans is primarily because fewer employers are offering health insurance as a benefit."
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