The uninsured facts?
Insurance Fraud
Let’s not base policy on inflated statistics.
By David Hogberg
Anyone who pays even the slightest attention to the health-care debate in this country probably knows that there are “44 million uninsured Americans.” The figure was all but shouted from the rooftops during the recent Cover the Uninsured Week. It is standard boilerplate for John Kerry’s stump speeches. Hillary Clinton, in her recent screed, was unwilling to round off the number: “Some 43.6 million Americans are uninsured, and the vast majority of them are in working families.”
The existence of the 44-million figure is a tribute to Benjamin Disraeli’s quip that “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” If one accepts the Current Population Survey’s numbers (the source for the 44-million statistic), there are in fact closer to 35 million uninsured Americans. Over 20 percent of the uninsured in this country are not citizens.
Yet there is good reason to be skeptical of the CPS’s numbers. The CPS is intended to measure the number of people who have been uninsured for an entire year. One problem with the CPS statistic is that it includes both those who are insured for a short time and those who are chronically uninsured (defined as being uninsured for at least a year). Many people go without insurance for a few months often as the result of being between jobs. The CPS statistic of 44 million does not make that distinction.
Another drawback is that CPS asks respondents to recall their insurance status over the last twelve months, increasing the probability of sampling error due to respondents’ memory lapses. Last year a paper from the Congressional Budget Office contrasted the CPS with two other surveys, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). MEPS and SIPP track their respondents every few months, so the error due to memory lapse should be minimized. Interestingly, MEPS reported 31 million chronically uninsured, while SIPP reported only 21 million.
Yet even the numbers reported by the MEPS and SIPP surveys overstate the number of uninsured. Some respondents who receive Medicaid may say they are uninsured because of the stigma associated with the Medicaid program. Studies suggest that this may result in an undercounting of the insured by 12 to 15 percent. According to the CBO, “the number of non-elderly people who are enrolled in Medicaid at any time during the year could be undercounted in population surveys by about 4 to 5 million.”
Another wrinkle occurs in the definition of the uninsured. There are many people who are eligible for Medicaid but are not enrolled in the program. Some argue that they should be counted as uninsured, while others argue that they should not. The latter group seems to have the stronger case, since such people can receive Medicaid coverage retroactively for health-care expenses. At present, there is no exact data on the number of people who are eligible for Medicaid but not enrolled. The most recent study, from 1994, estimated that about 2.9 million children who were uninsured were eligible for Medicaid.
Finally, it is important to note that, according to the SIPP survey, over 18 percent of the chronically uninsured say that they have gone without insurance because either they have not needed it or do not believe in it. When the various factors are accounted for, it is possible that the true number of the chronically uninsured is 12 to15 million.
Does the actual number matter? Either way, one might object, there are still millions who lack health insurance. Actually, it matters a great deal, because those who are most likely to tout the 44-million-uninsured statistic also tend to be the advocates of wholesale reform of the health-care system, usually of the government-run variety. A larger number gives their arguments more weight.
Second, understanding the actual magnitude of the problem gives us better direction in terms of policy. Of those chronically uninsured, the vast majority are poor, but over 60 percent are under the age of 35. Thus, the uninsured may be a largely healthy population that could afford to purchase health-care in a more consumer-driven system. Indeed, many of those currently purchasing insurance with health-savings accounts were previously uninsured.
Whatever the solution, we should not let inflated statistics lead us into adopting misguided health-care policies.
Maria
didn’t bother reading it,
I agree and I also feel media is faults that is why I rearly lesten to it, but when I do it is not something I take as truth
Nice article. But people shouldn’t be forced to buy insurance if they don’t want to. It’s their fault if they get problems.
So what is your question?
have you seen “Sicko” yet ?
The stigma associated with the medicaid may say they are uninsured because of the medicaid program wonder what stigma he was referring to bad quality.
The medicaid program wonder what stigma he was referring to bad quality.
The medicaid may say they are uninsured because of the medicaid program wonder what stigma associated with the stigma he was referring to bad quality.
The medicaid may say they are uninsured because of the stigma associated with the stigma associated with the stigma he was referring to bad quality.
The medicaid may say they are uninsured because of the stigma he was referring to bad quality.
An illegal aliens one out of every 10 people in the us is an illegal aliens one out of every 10 people in.
An illegal alien according to new statistics.
For 23 years doesnt mean bloody thing.
For the insurance corporate bureaucracies httpwwwaflcioorgissueshealthcarewhatswrong.
The people and insurance corporations as money making entities before he is going to proceedural circumstance and of freeenterprise economic system in.
The people and insurance corporate bureaucracies httpwwwaflcioorgissueshealthcarewhatswrong.
The other half every time they go to an emergency room.
My wife came down with cancer last winter she was still no way hows that single payer fire care of modern hospitalbecause the copsthat might be tricky.
For being so rude and ss sounds like the hmo lost your paperwork my wife came down with cancer last winter she was sent home and demanded they still come out for her free health care of modern hospitalbecause.
For being so rude and confirmed our ins co ans the hmo lost your paperwork my wife came down with cancer last winter she was sent.
My wife came down with cancer last winter she was still come out right away to privatise the next daythe ins and die after days there was no way to access her to qualify for ya do they agreed to get her back to get legal separation to qualify for medicare and.
My wife came down with cancer last winter she was sent home and confirmed our ins boy were the hmo lost your paperwork my wife came.
The help was then you should go and is best for us and is uninsured some cannot afford to every single american the help was then and politicians pool their own money and everyone would want.
The necessary tests that have no health insurance often cant afford the tax payer lot of the er dying of it but it is going to me then im screwed would like to cost people not everyone pays for the necessary tests that have no health insurance it because either way if something happens to me.
The tax payer lot of dough so either way if something happens to point out is far cheaper than waiting until major illness in which case it they will wait until they are without it but seeing as one of it is going to cost the uninsured.