From the rightwing blog, Get Liberty, comes this little bit of wisdom and funky arithmetic:
According the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 report, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States,” 46.9 million people are uninsured in the U.S. There’s only one problem with this statistic: approximately 31.85 million of them do not actually exist.
The numbers really cannot lie, although the report does. Out of a total population of 297.05 million, the report states on Page 20 that the “number of people covered by private insurance was… 201.7 million in 2006” and the “number of people covered by government health programs was… 80.3 million in 2006.”
Therefore, 282 million had insurance. Which means that out of a total population of 297.05 million, 15.05 million did not have insurance. Right?
Not at the U.S. Census Bureau. There, 297.05 million minus 282 million equals 46.9 million Americans uninsured. How?
Well, call it “fuzzy math.” In the above figure, taken from Page 20 of Census’ report, the fine print reads, “The estimates by type of coverage are not mutually exclusive; people can be covered by more than one type of insurance during the year.” But, nobody can be covered by insurance and not covered by it.
In other words, some 31.85 million people reported as uninsured in 2006 did have some coverage, and the Census included them in both categories. Why? They were probably between jobs at some point during the year, which is not abnormal.
I debated whether I should comment on this, but it was so over-the-top disingenuous and has the potential to leak into mainstream arguments about health care that I thought it best to offer some commentary. It is an interesting way to look at the report, I guess, if you don’t mind ignoring what the numbers actually say.
Basically, the Census data shows about 47 million uninsured and and 250 million insured. The discrepency comes from the overlap — almost 32 million people were covered both by private and government plans, possibly at different times during the year.
This is what Robert Romano, the author of the blog post, is referring to above. He acknowledges what is happening, but then decides he has a better way of looking at the numbers than the report’s authors.
Again, I would have ignored this but disinformation has been the driving force for much of the healthcare debate, especially among those opposed to a public option (witness the public relations blitz trying to scare seniors into thinking the government wants them dead, or the attacks on public-run care that ignore Medicare and the VA).
If we don’t counter this kind of nonsense, it just floats out there into the mainstream.
Hank Kalet 
From the report: \”People were considered “insured” if they were covered by any type of health insurance for part or all of the previous calendar year. They wereconsidered “uninsured” if they were not covered by any type of healthinsurance at any time in that year.\”This would dispute the conservative author's contention that some of the uninsured were simply between plans for a short period of time. The number of uninsured are those who were constantly without coverage during the year. –Thurman
Some how all the other industrialized democracies have some form or variation of universal health care but the richest and most powerful nation on earth does not (except for Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, SCHIP and SS disability insurance). Well of course, it's much more important that the private insurance companies make obscene profits (by denying care), it's much more important that the CEOs make $20 million a year and much more. This is the stupid vile mindset of too many Americans. Health care is a privilege for the deserving only, if you can't afford health insurance or if you don't have a job that supplies health insurance then you are a loser, a slug and therefore undeserving.
There will be rationing. Medical care is one of those rare commodities with an inelastic demand curve. Meaning, price doesn't impact demand until you get to the ends of the curve. Poor people in your \”sainted\” universal health care nations, are \”rationed\” by queues, denial, and incompetence. Rich people fly elsewhere. Here in the US, everyone gets care when they demand it. With delays. Sometimes as much as a day. Our system has been \”messed up\” with gooferment regulation. (1) Insurance is tied to employment due to WW2 wage and price regulation. (2) Coverages are mandated; for example, hair plugs, acupuncture, message. (3) Laws mandating conditions in the practice of \”medicine\”. (4) Licensing restricts the supply and type of medical help. (5) FDA and \”drug laws\” have precluded and delayed \”miracle drugs\”. (6) Philosophically, strategically, and tactically we have disconnected the cost and the consumer ensuring that demand far exceeds supply. Now the gooferment is goign to \”rescue\” us from the problem they have created.Why the rush to \”fix\” stuff? How about if we make small changes and see how they operate? Let's start by making medical insurance tax deductible for BOTH employers and taxpayers. Argh! That alone may start to eliminate the 4M uninsured. (You don't believe their 45 million number. Do you?) Next, let's remove the restriction on Credit Unions from offering medical insurance. How about tort reform? How about eliminating the licensing of docs and nurses? We could have certifications like underwriters' laboratory for appliances. In short, why do we have to copy the Soviet Union? Didn't work for them; won't work for us.
A 2008 CTV-Globe and Mail poll found that 91% of Canadians highly approved of their health care system and would not exchange it for our cruel system. Canadians do not come to America for health care in any significant numbers, that's another myth. Why would they come to the USA for health care to be charged confiscatory prices? There is no rationing and the wait times are exaggerated.We have rationing in this country for those uninsured, for those with high deductible insurance and for those in HMOs. If you are uninsured or if you have crappy insurance you do have wait times because you keep off going to a doctor or an ER until things are desperate.The WHO rates France and Germany as the best health care systems in the world and there are virtually no wait times at all. Everyone is covered and no one goes bankrupt from health expenses.Tens of millions of Americans are uncovered or burdened with crappy insurance, greater than the population of Canada. Fifty percent of personal bankruptcies are due to health expenses in this country. That does not happen in all the other affluent democracies (DEMOCRACIES) which have universal health care.People tell so many lies about health care in other countries and compare it to the USSR. Canada, France, Australia and the UK are free democracies with capitalism. Their health care systems actually encourage free enterprise and entrepreneurship. In America, the self-employed and small businesses with just a few employees are being driven out of business by confiscatory health insurance premiums that rise in double digits every year. A neighbor had to give up his small business because he could not longer afford insurance for himself and his family. He's one of millions.
Where DOES GE sell the most high speed MRI machines? (Buffalo?)Why do the highway roadsigns facing Canada advertise a 99$ no wait MRI? (That price may have gone up since the last time I was in Niagra Falls.)Who benefits from \”universal health care\”? (Politicians, bureaucrats, Government Motors, trial lawyers, Unions, scammers … everybody but the taxpayers!)Why do we have to do somehting BIG; why not START with small changes that EVERYONE agrees with. Like the tax deductiblity of health insurance. Like intrastate buying of insurance. Like allowing Credit Unions to offer health insurance.Why, because you should never waste a \”crisis\”!!!!
Why do millions of Americans go to Canada for cheaper drugs? Why do millions of Americans go to Mexico for cheaper drugs and cheaper ( but very good) medical and dental care? Oh yeah, the folks without insurance. The folks who don't want to go bankrupt. Buying insurance from another state (interstate) is more bogus sh*t, it will do nothing to alleviate our problems. Mr. libertarian is spouting all the GOP talking points. Blah, blah, blah, we can't rush, we must go slow. Holy cow, we've been going slow on health insurance for more than 60 years. Now is the time to have the strong public option at the least but I would prefer a one-payer system or even the different system they have in Germany (the Netherlands and Switzerland) which is mostly through private insurance.
$99 for an MRI??? Lay off the pot.A brain MRI can range from $1250-$1500. My brain MRI did cost $1500. The cost of an MRI study can range from $400 to more than $2000, with a typical cost being about $800.The average cost for an MRI in Detroit, MI , is $3,461.
You don't just walk in and demand an MRI. First, a doctor has to recommend an MRI is even warranted, you have to have a doctor's authorization for an MRI, that costs money above and beyond the actual MRI. It's not just the cost of the MRI, which is many times more than $99, but you have to also add in the cost of the doctor's visit authorizing the MRI.