Taking a closer look at the ‘real uninsured.’
To hear some people tell it, the number of people without health insurance in the United States is vastly overstated.
There are the illegal immigrants, the argument goes, and then there are those who can afford to buy insurance but don’t because they are young and otherwise healthy. Or cheap.
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah gave voice to those overheated claims in August, telling an interviewer that the true number of uninsured is “about 15 million people.”
A very different picture emerges in a new analysis by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Based on 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the study provides much-needed perspective as health reform gains momentum in Washington.
Even though covering the uninsured is just one of several goals of health care reform legislation, achieving that goal requires a basic understanding of just who are the uninsured.
Start with the basics: The Census Bureau estimates that 46.3 million people were uninsured in 2008. Today, that figure undoubtedly is higher because unemployment has continued to climb during 2009, and health insurance is closely linked to employment in this country.
The reductionist arguments start from the 46.3 million figure. One group after another is discarded as unworthy of being included among the “real uninsured.”
First they subtract immigrants. About 10 million uninsured people are not U.S. citizens. Many on the right assume that they’re all undocumented and illegal. But many foreign-born residents have legal U.S. status.
A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about 43 percent of illegal immigrants had health insurance in 2008, either through their job or purchased on their own. That means 6.8 million are uninsured. That’s not an insignificant number, but it still leaves nearly 40 million uninsured.
Next to be subtracted are adults in their 20s and early 30s — the so-called “Young Invincibles” — who, we are told, could afford to buy health insurance but choose not to.
They’re at the center of an increasingly public dispute between insurance companies, who initially supported health care reform, and the Obama administration. Insurance groups say the Senate health care reform bill approved this week in committee is flawed because it sets only weak penalties for the Young Invincibles.
But reality turns out to be more complicated. About 23 million of the 26 million uninsured single adults earn less than $43,000 a year. It’s not that they choose not to buy insurance, it’s that they can’t afford it.
About 10 million of them live in poverty. But unlike children and some poor parents, most single adults don’t qualify for Medicaid or other government insurance programs even if they’re poor.
Of the 11 million uninsured parents, 7.6 million earn less than $40,000. The median income for uninsured parents in their 20s is just $15,000.
Nor is being uninsured only a short-term inconvenience for most. Three-quarters of the 46.3 million uninsured — 34.7 million people — have been without coverage for at least a year. Most of them have been uninsured for more than three years.
Nearly three-quarters of the uninsured have no education beyond high school. Most of the uninsured don’t get free or reduced-price medical care. They’re often asked to pay up front for treatment or to finance it with high-interest credit cards.
One last thing about the uninsured: They’re more likely to live in states that usually vote Republican and whose political leaders oppose the health care reform.
In a debate from which they have the most to gain, their voices need to be heard.
> About 23 million of the 26 million uninsured single adults earn less than
> $43,000 a year. It’s not that they choose not to buy insurance, it’s
> that they can’t afford it.
Really? For a 30 year old in Missouri, United Healthcare offers 25 different individual plans, with premiums ranging from $29.37 to $146.55 a month. A single person who can’t afford even the most costliest of these plans doesn’t have a health insurance problem, he has a money management problem.
> Nearly three-quarters of the uninsured have no education beyond high school.
Again, a problem which has nothing to do with the health insurance industry.
> In a debate from which they have the most to gain, their voices need to be heard.
They ARE making their voices heard. At town hall meetings across America, the vast majority of Americans who are satisfied with our health care, and who dread the result of Congressional tinkering, have made our voices heard. Thanks for the encouragement!
most costliest … ugh. Why doesn’t this site have an edit feature?
You’re 28 years old make 43K and you cann’t afford any type of health care? What??? Are you kidding? Maybe we should also make a law that everybody make 60K a year because apparently 43K and you’re poor. I’m willing to bet for half of what the ‘Invincibles’ spend a month on their cell phones they could affford insurance. One of two things will happen here. Either these people will now get FREE insurance. In my opinion, no one making 43k and is single does not deserve to have anything free. Or they will be forced to buy insurance or pay the penalty. If they do the later I wonder if they realize they are support a $2,000 bill upon themselves. Given that most of them probably voted for Pres. Obama.
I second Mr. Kasoff - Where is the ‘edit’ feature?
Wow, could the editorial board be any more biased?
“That means 6.8 million are uninsured.” - So this paper DOES support tax payer money going to healthcare for ILLEGAL immigrants.
SoCoBoy - Logically speaking, the Post MUST support providing healthcare for illegal immigrants. Why? Because the rationale for their healthcare proposals is (1) Dealing with the uninsured in ERs is more costly than providing healthcare for them; (2) Healthcare is a basic human right. Both of these are equally true whether you’re an illegal immigrant or a citizen. So they have no pragmatic justification for excluding illegal immigrants that doesn’t undermine their fundamental argument.
+1 on wondering why young singles can’t afford to purchase coverage? The costs are very low in the individual market and most employers offer single employee coverage that requires very little contribution as compared to family plans. The bottomline is that coverage for young folks is cheap, because overall they don’t use the system much. Young people are for the most part healthy. The tradegy is that what’s being proposed amounts to a giant wealth transfer from the young to us older folks. It’s criminal that on top of the already large federal debt that we would considering forcing them buy overpriced (relative to the resources they use)insurance.
a_mac…. This push for reform is about transfer of wealth. Just as gun control is about control, not guns; health care reform is about care, not health. It is about making the government worshipers feel good about demonstrating how much they CARE for the lowly common folk. It is about having the power to dictate to others and the authority to take from the successful producers and give to the “needy.”
Health care is but one more step in the nanny staters march.
Can’t help but shake my heads at the non-believers here because they think that their hunky-dorys are so dory presently. (lol).
You just must shake your head and laugh at them for being so clueless, and hope there are more reasonable people than these out there who are willing to acknowledge the facts and change this and how healthcare is delivered in the U.S.