re: #411 sixoh1

I’m just curious - if there is going to be no coverage for Illegal aliens, why do they keep getting counted in the Uninsured number

Because the stats for the uninsured are based on the US Census data— which includes the illegal aliens. But nothing that’s been proposed will cover them, and Obama (and others) have stated that they won’t be covered.

This is a good breakdown on where the 46 million number comes from and what it actually means:

hat 46 million number — which to be exact, is actually 45.7 million — comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, which releases estimates of the uninsured yearly. That estimate is for 2007, and the data was released in 2008. (The 2008 data is scheduled for release on Sept. 10, 2009.)

The Census Bureau is not the only government agency that collects numbers on the uninsured, but it is often cited because it has the biggest sample, contacting about 97,500 households to ask about their insurance and other factors.

(snip)

Looking back to Obama’s statement, though, he said nearly 46 million Americans don’t have insurance. Actually, the census data include noncitizens. The Census Bureau breaks out that information and reports that 9.7 million of the uninsured are noncitizens. So the number of Americans without insurance is actually closer to 36 million.

politifact.com