We've busted the "Myth of the 46 Million" (or 47 million, or, well, pick a number) many times here at IB, but we're always happy to keep kicking that particular canard as many times as necessary. In 2007, according to the Census Bureau, there were some 46 million folks here in the States without health insurance. Of course, as we've also pointed out countless times, being without health insurance does not mean being without access to health care.
But I digress.
The problem with that number is that it's meaningless: for one thing, almost 10 million of those folks (over 20%) aren't even citizens. That leaves something like 36 million Americans who are uninsured.
Or does it?
An even closer look reveals some amazing perfidy:
That is, the survey takes place in February, and has no way to adjust for the fact that many (most?) of these folks will have coverage in place sometime in the next 10 months. Or, they might reply that, although they're currently covered, they were uninsured at least part of the previous year and, voila, they're "uninsured."
And of course there's the issue of why they're uninsured. Many folks believe, erroneously, that they can't afford even catastrophic health coverage. And finally, there are those folks who qualify for government coverage (Medicare/Medicaid) who for whatever reason opt out (or are unaware of the availability).
But wait, there's more good news:
According to CNN (not exactly rightwing shills), most insured Americans (80% of them!) are actually satisfied with their health care, and about 75% are happy with their insurance coverage, as well.
They're also less than thrilled with the cost of health care, which continues to escalate (but that's another post).
[Hat Tip: American Spectator]
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