Chart - Breakdown of the 47 Million Uninsured
Many of the nominally uninsured — 45.7 million in 2007 — lack coverage by choice.
According to Dave at Classical Values, the true total of those who can’t get health insurance is more like 6 million, or 2 percent of Americans. So why is health reform a crisis? Commenter suek already answered this question: “The problem is that the goal of the legislation is not to provide health care, the goal is to obtain more power for the Federal government.” See also AWR Hawkins and Megan McArdle:
I don’t want to give the government a greater role in health care markets. Nay, not even if all the other countries … well, all the cool countries, anyway … are doing it.
A public policy broadening health insurance coverage for the truly needy without growing government is relatively simple. The problem—Senator John McCain campaigned for much of it last year, so it’s a political non-starter for this Administration. Instead, for progressives, it’s more like: “More communitarian sausage-making, Ma; please?”