The Multitude of The Uninsured

46 million insured Americans. The president makes sure we here that number on a daily basis. What he doesn’t tell us is how that number breaks down. According to the census bureau here is the break down on the 46 million uninsured:

10.1 million people are individuals who have an income of 66,000 dollars for a family of four, but who ELECT to remain uninsured.

9.3 million people are non-citizens who generally do not pay taxes.

6.4 million people are enrolled in Medicaid or S-CHIP but reported to the census taker that they were not insured. (this is known as the Medicaid under count)

4.3 million people are eligible for Medicaid or S-CHIP but have not enrolled.

5 million people are childless adults, mainly healthy, young adults who simply do not wish to pay for health insurance.

This brings us to a number of 35.1 million people, so there are around 11 million Americans who do not qualify for some type of private or current government program. This begs the question, “Do we really need to totally remake our health care system?”

My answer is no we do not. If we institute some type of reform such as easing insurance regulations and tort reform, it may be possible to to get the other 11 million some type of affording health care. Tort reform alone would reduce the amount of malpractice insurance doctors pay for meaning that they would be able to make more money and reduce the cost of their services. It would also allow doctors to stop practicing “defensive” medicine and be more confident in their diagnosis, which would also reduce cost by eliminating redundant testing procedures that protect doctors in case they are sued for malpractice.

Sarah Palin’s facebook page sheds some light on tort reform and what it has done for a few different states around the country.