Heritage on Health Care

Understanding the Uninsured Numbers

Moffit told the Des Moines Register: “The number of people who are persistently or chronically uninsured is relatively small.”

Moffit said many people lose insurance temporarily while they change jobs, but quickly regain it. That pattern has increased over time, as people began switching employers more frequently, he said.

The solution to this issue is to make the health insurance market more stable by changing tax laws to encourage Americans to buy their own insurance. Moffit explains in MedCity News:

Let’s tie health insurance to the person rather than the job … Rather than push for a nationalized health system or even a public health insurance plan that could crowd out the private insurance market, Americans should have the opportunity to own and control their health insurance.

Qua? Via the Famlies USA March Report

One in Three Uninsured: 2007-2008

• 86.7 million people under the age of 65 went without health insurance for some or all of the two-year period from 2007 to 2008.
• One out of three people (33.1 percent) under the age of 65 were uninsured for some or all of 2007-2008.

Number of Months Uninsured

• Of the 86.7 million uninsured individuals, three in five (60.2 percent) were uninsured for nine months or more. Nearly three-quarters (74.5 percent) were uninsured for six months or more.
• Among all people under the age of 65 who were uninsured in 2007-2008, one quarter (25.3 percent) were uninsured for the full 24 months during 2007-2008; 19.5 percent were uninsured for 13 to 23 months; 15.4 percent were uninsured for nine to 12 months; 14.3 percent were uninsured for six to eight months; and 20.1 percent were uninsured for three to five months. Only 5.4 percent were uninsured for two months or less.

Nine months or more is persistent enough...

Plus, here's a question.  Doesn't one want to

a) cover as many people as one can

yet at the same time

b) do it for as cheap as possible

Why would I want to spend more money buying insurance on the open market for individuals, when I can group together with others to get a cheaper deal, with better coverage, and more bells and whistles?

How does one own and control ones own health insurance?  If I buy from a private insurance company... someone is making cost cutting decisions that impact me.  I don't get a direct line to the CEO. 

What does it mean to control ones own health insurance, seriously... I'm wondering what that would look like, and can anyone show me a real life example of that?

I get it, Heritage supports spending lots of our nations wealth in the health care sector... but why do the rest of us care about proping up the health care industry?

Posted via web from jimnichols's posterous