What About the Uninsured?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/2009/07/boyfriend-with-health-benefits-ii.html

What about the uninsured?
First off, here's the best summary of the 'uninsured' that I've found:
At any one time there are around 45 million people who do not have what is commonly called Health Insurance. The numbers that follow are approximate, but they are accurate enough to explain the truth.
Of that 45 million without "Health Insurance" between 8 and 10 million are illegal aliens. They do not have either employer paid "Insurance" or govt. paid coverage because, well, they're not supposed to be here and if they signed up they'd get caught.
Around 10 million are people who qualify for some government coverage (Medicaid, Medicare, SCHIP, etc.) but for some reason have not signed up. In Cleveland Metro General hospital increased its top line revenue by $25 Million in 2008 by simply signing up all of its "free-care" patients who were eligible for government "Insurance".
Another 10 million are people who are temporarily without "Insurance" while they are between jobs, cities, schools, etc.
A final 10 million or so are young people who simply elect not to purchase/accept "Insurance", choosing instead to buy an IPod, flat screen, or Lamborgini. Part of that is due to the high costs of insurance, which is driven largely by govt mandates on what must be covered. Buying stripped down, real insurance (which protects against large, improbable events) is not possible in all states. Young healthy people do the math and realize 'pre paid service plan' 'insurance' is a bad deal for them.
So that leaves 5-8 million Americans who are chronically without "Insurance". There are approximately 160 million Americans with private "Insurance" and another 100+ million with government "Insurance".
Should we should dropkick the entire system for 5-8 million Americans who are chronically without "Insurance"? And are they without Healthcare? Of course not. These are the people who get their flu shots at the local level 1 trauma center. Optimal? Of course not, but they are hardly without Healthcare.
Numbers availble with little effort in all manner of sources including BOTH WSJ and NYT.
Comment #145 - Posted by: bingo at July 22, 2009 3:05 PM (from Crossfit.com)