How big is the problem of the 'uninsured' in the US? Various numbers tell different stories. Typical number of people lacking health insurance is 45 million of those living in the US. The graph above (from
keithhennesey.com) shows that the worrisome number is probably somewhat less than 45 million. As Keith Hennesey writes,
- "Of that amount, 6.4 million are the Medicaid undercount. These are people who are on one of two government health insurance programs, Medicaid or S-CHIP, but mistakenly (intentionally or not) tell the Census taker that they are uninsured. There is disagreement about the size of the Medicaid undercount. This figure is based on a 2005 analysis from the Department of Health and Human Services.
- Another 4.3 million are eligible for free or heavily subsidized government health insurance (again, either Medcaid or SCHIP), but have not yet signed up. While these people are not pre-enrolled in a health insurance program and are therefore counted as uninsured, if they were to go to an emergency room (or a free clinic), they would be automatically enrolled in that program by the provider after receiving medical care. There’s an interesting philosophical question that I will skip about whether they are, in fact, uninsured, if technically they are protected from risk.
- Another 9.3 million are non-citizens. I cannot break that down into documented vs. undocumented citizens.
- Another 10.1 million do not fit into any of the above categories, and they have incomes more than 3X the poverty level. For a single person that means their income exceeded $30,600 in 2007, when the median income for a single male was $33,200 and for a female, $21,000. For a family of four, if your income was more than 3X the poverty level in 2007, you had $62,000 of income or more, and you were above the national median.
- Of the remaining 15.6 million uninsured, 5 million are adults between ages 18 and 34 and without kids."
Here is more on the uninsured.
How big is the problem of the 'uninsured' in the US? Various numbers tell different stories. Typical number of people lacking health insurance is 45 million of those living in the US. The graph above (from keithhennesey.com) shows that the worrisome number is probably somewhat less than 45 million. As Keith Hennesey writes,
We constantly hear the dire warning that the ranks of the uninsured will soon overwhelm the country and our federal coffers. Of course, any good political message worth its salt speaks to the heart and our emotions as opposed to logic. This explains the constant pleas for uninsured children. These statistics challenge both arguments.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the rising cost of health care is still very much an issue even if we assume it is not at the crisis stage yet. These statistics do not speak to the millions of ininsured workers who could very well see a higher percentage of their income devoted to premiums and medical services.
In an environment where emotions often (but not always) take precedence over truth, is the solution to crafting a good policy to emotionally charge a good truthful argument?
ReplyDeleteThe rising health care costs are certainly a problem. Since 1970 the annual health care costs in the US have grown 2.4 percentage points faster than the GDP; that's almost double the GDP growth.
So do we have data on the percentage of net income that the insured pay?
ReplyDeleteBased on http://www.nriol.net/visitors-insurance/index.php/national-health-care-spending-72-of-gdp-outpaces-economic-growth-10-of-people-account-for-63-of-spending/
ReplyDelete"In 2009, the U.S. is projected to spend over $2.5 trillion on health care in 2009, or $8,160 per U.S. resident and account for 17.6% of GDP."
This is not the same thing as the percentage of disposable income that the average person spends on health care, but this gives a quick ball-park figure.