Number Of Uninsured Rises To 46.3 Million

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

Poverty Rate Hits 11-Year High

10:15 am EDT September 10, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans without health insurance rose to 46.3 million last year as people began losing jobs and coverage in the current recession. The poverty rate hit 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.

The Census Bureau's annual report released Thursday offers a snapshot of the economic well-being of American households for 2008, the first full year of the recession. It comes as Congress engages in its high-stakes debate over health care overhaul, following a renewed plea Wednesday night by President Barack Obama to pass sweeping legislation.

The numbers for 2008 do not capture the economic impact in the first half of 2009 as hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their jobs and likely their health insurance. Speaking at the White House, Obama acknowledged that the number of those without coverage may be higher than the Census figures.

"The situation's grown worse over the last 12 months," he said. "Its estimated that the ranks of the uninsured have swelled by at least 6 million."

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/money/20831743/detail.html

[ihavenobias]

1. But you don't understand!

They CHOOSE to be uninsured!*

;)







*Right wing response.

[Igel]

7. Speaking from experience,

some are.

Yet others are eligible for public insurance and haven't signed up. Simplistic figures are just that.

Many would like to have it but can't afford it, and others would like to have it but their employers don't offer it.

Knee-jerk responses and assumptions make discussion impossible because everything is starkly black and white, with no nuance, no details, no complexity. That's how freepers put it. Mutatis mutandis, it works for the other side, too.

[ihavenobias]

8. Ah

But the implication from the right is that MOST uninsured people are that way by choice and the rest are lazy deadbeats. I wish that was hyperbole.

[Quantess]

12. Exactly what kind of "knee-jerk responses" do you hear coming from the left,

regarding the reasons why so many Americans are uninsured?

Edit to add: I'll make a leap and guess that you are referring to the millions of low-wage workers who say that they can't afford their health insurance offered through their employers.

[Quantess]

15. Crickets.

[sabrina 1]

17. I do not know a single person without insurance

who would not have it if they could afford it. I'm sure there are some. As for the employers who don't provide it, many will go out of business if they are forced to do so because they cannot afford it. And when that happens, even more people will be out of work.

Then there are those who had insurance, but because of illness, lost their jobs and their insurance.

Until we have universal insurance for everyone, there will be this blame game going on. No one is blamed for being sick and without insurance in France, or Britain or Canada because in those countries, healthcare is considered a right.

Here, it is a commodity, and that is where the blame lies. On a system that has allowed over 22,000 people to die every year because they could not afford to buy health insurance. I wonder how many of them, over a quarter of a million since 9/11, were just being selfish. I wonder how their families felt knowing they needed care but could not help them.

The French system is considered the best in the world. The US, 'greatest country in the world' is #37. The cost of not making it available to everyone, is greater than it would be to cover everyone.

I really have no time for this attitude that we have to 'blame' the poor, as we blamed the Iraqis, and now we are blaming the Afghanis, for failing to 'step up to the plate'.

How about we just fix it and let every American have the same access to healthcare that Congress and Dick Cheney have. Many without healthcare for themselves and their families, are helping to pay for the healthcare of the very same government that is refusing to provide it for them.

The whole system is a disgrace, and it is the fault of those who believe that profits are more important than human lives. Much as I despise him, I would not deny Cheney that basic human right if he could not afford it himself.

Michael Moore has lots of enemies, who spend their time attacking him and his documentaries. One of those political enemies attacked his movie about the our healthcare system, Sicko. But when that 'enemy's' wife got sick and he couldn't afford the bills, Michael Moore paid them. After which the guy went back to attacking him. That is the attitude we all should have regarding this right. The rest is just useless bickering over a subject that everyone who calls themselves a human being, should agree on.

[aquart]

2. Now these are people living in TERROR.

How about we take the money we waste on that idiot bin Ladin and spend it on what we're REALLY afraid of?

[apnu]

3. And that's not counting the millions who have insurance but is shitty insurance.

Like mine, were I'm out of pocket on everything under the sun. The insurance offered by my company is only usefull when I get into a catastrophic situation. If I take care of myself (get yearly checkups, or go to PT to fix some part of me that's breaking down) the deductibles are so high that I'm basically paying for the service on my own.

I think that is missing in this debate. There are many who are uninsured, which is bad and should be fixed. And there are many more with coverage that screws them several ways.

All of this tells me we need a total medical overhaul in this country. From top to bottom.

[Zenlitened]

4. Kinda makes any talk of a "trigger" seem silly doesn't it?

Memo to "conservatives" in both parties: The trigger's already been pulled. The patient's bleeding to death. :(

[Desertrose]

5. Poverty rate hits high...OK, let's make them BUY health insurance

Isn't there a rather obvious large logical disconnect there?

[TheWatcher]

9. But you don't understand what an opportunity this is.

If Mandatory Insurance is required of the 46.3 million, surely there is a sizeable percentage of them that cannot afford it if that goes into effect.

Think of the Profits that can be harvested in FINES alone.

Why Do You Hate Corporate Profits?

Why Do You Hate Exploitation Of The Worker Bees?

Haven't the Insurance Companies sacrificed enough for your sake?

Why do you want to hurt them so much?

Why, what did they ever do to you that was so bad?

(Is the tag even required here?)

[Quantess]

13. See? You get it.

It takes a certain level of detachment to understand what is really going on.

[Fearless]

6. And it will continue to rise and rise until we get health care legislation.

[Psephos]

10. Obama claimed 30 million last night

:shrug:

[OhioChick]

11. 45.8 Million in 2004

Data released today by the Census Bureau show that the number of uninsured Americans stood at 45.8 million in 2004, an increase of 800,000 people over the number uninsured in 2003 (45.0 million). The percentage of people without health insurance, 15.7 percent in 2004, was not significantly different from the 15.6 percent rate in 2003.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=631

With all of the job loss....these numbers have to be MUCH higher now.

[Psephos]

14. your numbers look like the ones I'm used to seeing

I'm still not sure what Obama meant

[New Dawn]

16. Single Payer is the only solution.

http://www.singlepayeraction.org/