Breaking Down Those 45 Million Uninsured Americans

by John Hawkins | June 27, 2007 6:45 am

You frequently see liberals using the fact that there are roughly 45 million people without health insurance in the United States each year to promote socialized medicine. However, even though there are some people who genuinely find health insurance to be prohibitively expensive or have medical conditions that make it difficult for them to be covered, the vast majority of that 45 million is made up of people who simply choose not to be covered.

From Free Market Cure[1],

“We hear a lot these days about 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance.

…According to the US Census Bureau, 17 million of those without health insurance live in households having over $50,000 in annual income. That’s 38% of the uninsured in America.(2)

In fact, 9 million – 20% of the uninsured – reside in households pulling down more than $75K a year. (3)

…And then there are the young invincibles. Over 18 million of the uninsured are people between the ages of 18 and 34. (4) They spend more than four times as much on alcohol, tobacco, entertainment and dining out as they do for out-of-pocket spending on health care.(5) They represent 40% of the uninsured in America.

…14 million people without health insurance are eligible for government health care programs like Medicaid and S-CHIP but choose not to enroll. (7) They represent %31 – nearly one third – of the uninsured in America.

…The U.S. has 12 million illegal immigrants who don’t buy health insurance but still get health care.

…So, how many are truly uninsured? Around eight million. Just 18% of the 45 million that we hear about so often.”

As you can see, there’s a little bit of overlap in those groups, but, long story short — for 8 million people out of what, 300 million, the liberals want to radically overhaul our health care system, make it much less efficient, much more expensive to get the same level of care, drive our taxes through the roof, and make people wait for months to get routine surgeries?

That would be a rotten deal for the American people.

Endnotes:
  1. Free Market Cure: http://www.freemarketcure.com/uninsuredinamerica_transcript.php

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/breaking-down-those-45-million-uninsured-americans/