SwiftVets.com

[Tony]

In Florida- there is a TV commercial being played repeatedly in which John Kerry talks about 43M uninsured Americans, citing an often mentioned statistic from the last census. Of course he has a plan to reduce this number by around 26M people - one that involves higher taxes. 43M seems like a big number - so I did a little bit of research to see if I could get behind this number a bit. Here's what I found....

-- 43M people is about 14.6% of the US population

-- Of these 43M - Blue Cross Blue Shield estimates 14M are eligible but not enrolled for current government backed insurance programs like Medicaid

-- The same study shows another 13M people have income levels above $50k and choose not to buy insurance - in fact it states the fastest growing population of uninsured people make over $75K a year

-- An additional 6M are only uninsured for a short time (students, people between jobs, etc...)

This leaves 8M people or around 2.7% of the US population without health insurance. The study can be found here...

http://bcbshealthissues.com/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=39517

Is this the sort of campaign we are in for from John Kerry? Playing fast and loose with statistics to suit his own purposes...i.e. in this case - creating more government programs and government waste. President Bush has a plan as well to address the problem of the uninsured - one that is paid for under the current projected federal budget and would reduce the number of uninsured by around 6M (source OMB)...not such a bad number when you take some time to get behind the stats a bit. Details of this and Kerry's plan can be found here in a PDF file:

http://bcbshealthissues.com/specialfeatures/hcpolitics2004/chart.vtml

Of course I worry about people with a license to vote - who won't take the time to understand the facts getting them instead from a 60 second TV commercial. Hopefully, they will be in the minority. Kind of reminds me of a bumper sticker on one of my neighbor's cars...

"I think..therefore I am Republican"
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http://tonyk.smugmug.com/photos/1822816-L-1.jpg
USN 1983-1992

[carpro]

This is a true story.

A company I used to be a manager for had a group health insurance plan with a 30 day waiting period. One guy that worked for me and had a wife and 4 kids turned down family coverage when he became eligible for it.

His reason? He could afford it but why pay for it when all he had to do was take the wife or kids to the county hospital emergency room? The hospital HAD to treat them and he didn't have to pay the bill.

Is this guy in your statistics anywhere? He doesn't need insurance because the taxpayers of the county furnish treatment for his family...FREE!

The moral to this story? Being uninsured is NOT the same as not having any medical care available.
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"If he believes his 1971 indictment of his country and his fellow veterans was true, then he couldn't possibly be proud of his Vietnam service."

[Tony]

I think this happens more often than not - he would be in the 13M who have it available and choose not to take advantage. What really steams me up about this, is that I can't turn on the TV without seeing this particular Kerry campaign ad, and it's just wrong. Plain, flat wrong - but simple people will lap it up.

If you've seen this thing it makes you want to puke...smiling grandmothers and friendly old people...good hard working men and women...blah blah blah... Except I'm a good hard working man and I don't feel like paying for the guy who'd rather hit the emergency room than take care of his family (although I'm sure Kerry would classify me as one of the rich whose taxes need to be higher which is a hoot since my net worth would be like a little water droplet when placed next to the Heinz family fortune).

Nothing like watching a gazillionare Presidential candidate rubbing his hands together as he prepares to reach into your pocket to steal some of your hard earned cash so he can buy some votes....
_________________

http://tonyk.smugmug.com/photos/1822816-L-1.jpg
USN 1983-1992