Today the president will address the American Medical Association as part of his effort to push Americans into government-run healthcare. No doubt he will say that his version of “reform” is necessary in order to cover the 46 million uninsured Americans.
So exactly who ARE the uninsured? Harvard business school economist and healthcare policy analyst Regina Herzlinger shed ight on the issue during a Raleigh speech late last year. Said Herzlinger:
A third of the uninsured earn over $50,000 a year. Fifty thousand is the median family income in the United States. Among the most rapidly rising numbers of uninsured are people who earn more than $75,000 a year. What is $75,000? You are among the richest 20 percent of the United States. So why are these people uninsured? The reason is a particular quirk in our tax [code], which enables corporations to use tax-free money to purchase health insurance, but individuals who buy it on their own can ony use after-tax money… These uninsured are typically self-employed or they work in small companies that either cannot afford to buy health insurance or whose CEOs cannot be burdened with the enormous chore of buying health insurance, and they would have to buy it for themselves out of after-tax money.
You can view the entire Herzlinger speech on healthcare here.
