Healthcare on my Mind.

While reading the Opinion section of the TEnnessean online last week, I came across this piece by a Hal Roberts of Franklin, TN titled, "Obama team turns its back on free-market principles."

Choosing to ignore the political sides Mr. Roberts has taken, I couldn't help but have my mind go back to the hottest topic of debate today - healthcare reform and health insurance and got to thinking: It amazes me on how everyone talks about how there are millions uninsured but no one wants to face that money plays a big part of how these programs work.

But let’s get the number right according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau’s report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States. The non-citizen rate of uninsured individuals clocks in at 43.8%, or roughly 9.4 million non-Americans. While the number continues to drop, it’s also worth noting that we’re not talking exclusively about the abject poor who can’t afford insurance, that same Census Bureau summary includes the following:

There are 8.3 million uninsured people who make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year and 8.74 million who make more than $75,000 a year. That’s roughly 17 million people who ought to be able to “afford” health insurance because they make substantially more than the median household income of $46,326.

Once you do some fairly basic math, you come up with the same figure that the Kaiser Family Foundation arrived at: The liberal Kaiser Family Foundation puts the number of uninsured Americans who don’t qualify for government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 8.2 million and 13.9 million.

If we are to provide 14 million people with insurance don’t you think it would be better to just change the systems we already have and provide those people with the needed care along with the other people that are already in the system? This would put less of a burden on our budget and still provide the help that people need. What we do not need is too many people living on the system and see to it that everyone takes personal responsibility so the system is not abused and is used for those who truly need it. We must balance the budget in this country or we will all be facing a country in bankruptcy and that is not going to be pretty.