We've all heard it, "47 million Americans don't have health care insurance..." If you have a modicum of skepticism like me, you ask yourself who are these 47 million Americans and how is it that the world's only super power could and would tolerate something so egregious.
Well, let's break down this figure. Once you see the numbers, you begin to see that this number is just a tad bit inflated. And that's for a calculated reason.
Starting with the number 47,000,000, let's subtract those Americans that earn over $50,000 per year who don't want health care insurance, which is about 18,000,000. Now, that leaves us with 29,000,000 Americans uninsured.
Now that we have a new figure, let's remove those illegal immigrants, which is roughly 12,600,000. That leaves us with about 16,400,000 Americans that don't have health care insurance. Out of those 16,400,000, remove about 8,000,000 who are under the age of 18 which gives a rough estimate of 8,400,000. Let's not forget those invincible 18 to 20 somethings who think that they'll never get sick.
So, what we have left is roughly 8.4 million uninsured Americans.
So why is this inflated number bandied about? Well, if you are hearing and reading what's in the news about health care reform, don't you think that members of Congress and the President would stand a better chance on quickly passing HR 3200 when there are 47 million "Americans" that don't have health care insurance?
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