Obamacare is on the way whether Americans want it or not. With the supermajority in the Senate now any proposal by the President can be fast tracked for his signature. Currently when discussing universal heathcare in America the Obama administration has cited as fact that 46 million Americans are uninsured. However, this number is highly suspect if you believe the recent congressional testimony of an Arizona orthopedic surgeon. Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer for CNSNews.com, reported that on Tuesday, Dr. Novack questioned the accuracy of the 46 million figure and his testimony, if accurate, begs the question why are we even bothering with universal healthcare:
“If we start breaking down those numbers a bit--and again these will be round numbers--but about 9 to 10 million of those people are in the country illegally,” Novack said.Another 15 million are what he called “chronically uninsured,” because of pre-existing health problems or other mitigating factors. We have young people between 18 and 30, probably about another 10 million or so, they’d rather buy applications for their iPhone than buy health insurance,” Novack said.
He said some of the approximately 46 million Americans referred to by Obama and members of the subcommittee include others who may be eligible for existing government health care programs, such as S-Chip and Medicaid, but don’t sign up.” http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49986
Based upon Dr. Novak’s testimony it appears that no more than 26 million Americans are truly uninsured and of that total a great majority may be eligible for government heathcare under the current system. So why the great rush for more government when less than 9% of the country that needs heathcare insurance don't have it? This becomes especially ponderous when you look at the costs involved. As Jennifer Haberkorn of the Washington Times wrote a few weeks ago:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the bill will cost $1 trillion and still leave about 36 million people uninsured. To be fair the CBO noted in its report that its estimate was based on an incomplete bill and doesn't account for prevention and wellness measures that Democrats say will save money. http://tiny.cc/YA6ef So even if we believe the President’s figure regarding the unisured only 10 million more people will be covered at a cost of $1 Trillion. Its looking more and more like this guarentee of heathcare for all is nothing more than a powergrab by Washington. Its a fact that the cost for heathcare in America has risen at an alarming rate but the President’s solution does nothing to help lower those costs. We need a real solution but we aren’t likely to get it from this Administration or the Congress.
No comments:
Post a Comment