Thread: OPINION: Uninsured And Overinflated

http://www.investors.com/editorial/e...56435064456051

Uninsured And Overinflated

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 2/15/2007

Reform: We hear it over and over: 46 million people uninsured — a number meant to convey the urgent need for universal health care. But like so many truisms, it falls apart on close examination.

The claim that so many people lack health insurance seems incontrovertible — and reprehensible. Sen. Hillary Clinton, author of a stillborn universal care plan when she was First Lady, calls it "a national crisis and a flat-out moral failing."

Sen. Barack Obama, in announcing his own plan for universal care, called it "wrong when 46 million Americans have no health care at all." And Sen. Ted Kennedy, another universal care advocate, reckons 4,000 people join the ranks of of the insured every day.

On closer examination, however, the problem of the uninsured doesn't look so frightening, and the need for a massive government program to cover every American begins to look like overkill.

Among the most common misconceptions:

46.6 million are uninsured. That number, from the Census Bureau, is misleading. It makes it seem like there are that many who simply can't get coverage. Fact is, this group is constantly changing, and most of the uninsured soon have coverage again.

A Congressional Budget Office report found that 45% were uninsured for four months or less — just 29% lacked coverage for more than a year. As the CBO put it: "Some people are uninsured for long periods, but more are without coverage for shorter times, such as between jobs."

Looked at this way, the problem is far smaller than universal health care proponents would have you believe.

The ranks of the uninsured are climbing rapidly. Over the past 20 years, the number of uninsured counted by the Census Bureau has steadily increased. But so has the population. The uninsured rate has essentially been flat since 1987. And the latest figure, 15.9%, is lower than it was during the Clinton years — when it reached 16.3% in 1998. In 2005, 1.4 million more people had insurance than the year before, although nobody touted that success.

Moreover, most of the increase in uninsured is due to immigration. An Employee Benefits Research Institute study found that immigrants accounted for 86% of the growth in the uninsured population between 1998 and 2003. As a result, immigrants now make up more than 26% of the uninsured, compared with 19% in 1994.

Businesses are dropping coverage. Not exactly. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study, the main cause in the rise in the number of uninsured is the shift in the nation's work force away from big companies and industries that are most likely to provide health benefits towards smaller companies or self-employment. It found that "virtually all net increase in employment in the past five years occurred in those industries that are much less likely to have employer coverage."

Nobody chooses to be uninsured. On the contrary, evidence shows that a large portion of the uninsured population could get coverage if they wanted it. The Census report notes that nearly 40% of the uninsured are young, under age 34. At least some of them may have concluded that their money was better spent on something other than health insurance.

In addition, a report from the National Center for Policy Analysis reports that about 14 million uninsured adults and children are eligible for government coverage.

Looked at more closely, then, you see that most of the uninsured are young, between jobs, moving to industries that don't offer coverage, or eligible for government programs. True, a gap in coverage can be a problem, and many still have no coverage for long spells.

But fixing these problems requires targeted reforms that make it easier for people to buy insurance on their own, and carry it with them as they change jobs — just like people do with auto insurance or homeowner's insurance.

It means getting rid of costly state mandates that push up the price of coverage. It means fixing the tax code bias against out-of-pocket spending on health care. It means creating viable high-risk insurance pools for those who can't get coverage for health reasons, and making sure people sign up for available public help.

The last thing we need is a massive new government program that promises to fix a problem that doesn't actually exist. If Kennedy, Clinton, Obama, et al. really want to help the uninsured, they should at least understand who they are, and what they really need.

I was laid off in '01 and tried to keep up with COBRA but eventually couldn't. A few months later I found a job with benefits again, but it was a scary time.

My insurance went up $ 300.00 a month when I moved to AZ. Because of illegals
If we stop our government from giving free health care to then maybe are insurance payments would drop to a more reasonable price.