Health Care Debate Obfuscation – Number of Uninsured
June 29, 2009
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Posted by Michael S. Langston
In any debate or critical analysis of any issue, one must first begin by understanding terms as they are defined, understand the data being used and how that data has been obtained, and realize that many people doing research have vested interests in any given outcome, and therefore will define everything in a way that will best suit their needs.
The number of currently uninsured falls into a category that should be better defined for anyone wishing to make an informed decision as to any potential policy recommendations.
To begin, we’ll start with the varying reports. Currently, it seems that most politicians have settled firmly on a figure of around 50 million uninsured. Depending upon the source and the definition they choose, this figure moves anywhere between 25 million, defined as those actually needing assistance, all the way up to 87 million, defined as anyone who hasn’t had health coverage over the past year.
To help make sense of the number, we can review the Health & Human Services report from 2004 (here). The following figure help define the number more clearly, showing the number of insured versus their current level of poverty (defined as ~19K annually per family), by percentage of the total number uninsured (listed as 45.8 million in this report):
As we see here, a full 27% of those uninsured currently make over 300% or more of poverty levels, with a full 46% of those uninsured making more than 200% of current poverty levels.
This means out of the current 2004 numbers, 45.8 million, 12.6 million currently have household incomes above 57 thousand annually, with a full 21 million having household incomes above 38 thousand annually.
To further define these numbers, at these figures, individuals making over 300% of poverty, would pay about 4% of their income to provide health care for themselves and family. Individuals making over 200% of poverty would be pushing about 9% of their income.
What does this mean for the debate? That is of course an individual decision, as some will see these numbers and not care either way as they believe that health care is a right and those opposite who believe health care isn’t.
The main thing these two divergent groups should pull from this information, is that we should demand more truthful information out of our elected representatives instead of just the numbers that push their agendas.
Categories: Critical Thinking
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Hey, ok, I get it, I guess – but does this really work?
I’m not sure I get your question – does this work?
It’s true, but if work do you mean change people’s minds?
Probably not so much, but I’ve found with other interactions that moving people away from mythical thinking is a very slow process that usually starts with arguing base premises.
& health care, like many debates, can not be argued well, if the basic facts aren’t understood.
Hopefully pointing out one obvious, easy to find, and nonpartisan myth, will make people more curious about the other things they’re not really sure of.
Of course the very committed will say it’s a lie and work to marginalize the messenger, but I’m not big enough to have enemies