Who Knew It Was Even Possible?

Some sobering reports have emerged of late:

Families USA estimates that one working-age Oregonian dies each day due to lack of health insurance (approximately 350 people in 2006).

Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 years old in Oregon who died because they did not have health insurance was nearly 1,900.

Across the United States, in 2006, twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as died from homicide.

It's easy to see why Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Senator Gordon Smith, and other Democrats are pushing for universal health coverage - apparently, people are just up and keeling over in the streets from lack of health insurance!  So appalling is the situation that twice as many die from lack of health insurance as die from homicide.  Clearly decisive action needs to be taken in order to stem the tide!  Or does it?

Aren't most of these same folks pushing for gun-control?  Isn't it a fact that guns don't kill people - people kill people?  Shouldn't gun control be defined as hitting what you're aiming at?  While this may appear to be a digression from the main topic, it most assuredly is not:  in both gun control and health insurance discussions, there is a tendency on the part of the proponents to employ Orwellian NewSpeak - the systematic re-definition of standard English terminology; morphing our language into utter nonsense.

To say that twice as many people die from lack of health insurance as die from homicide is a bold statement, to be sure; it is also it is also undeniably nonsensical.

People die from many things: injury, disease, aneurisim, malnutrition, infection, and so on.

In fact, whether or not you have health insurance, it remains that sooner or later, you too will die.

There has never been any recorded case - anywhere - of anyone dying from lack of health insurance.

Moreover, in the USA, the vast majority of those who lack health insurance have made a conscious decision not to obtain it; the majority of those without coverage earn $50,000 to $75,000 per year.  Certainly, they could afford coverage if they were so inclined.  Proponents of universal health care never mention that salient fact; they point instead to the poor, the mentally unbalanced, and the homeless.  The fact that many in these minority populations could obtain coverage through programs such as SCHIP but simply never sign up for it also is generally left unmentioned by proponents.

In any case, although a small percentage of uninsured may not have the basic thought processes in place, they do still have access to people who can guide them into the services available, and they of course still have access to any emergency room.

Moreover, ER personnel will help them into available services, if only because it's in the facility's best interest to recover some portion of ER costs.

Now, the fact is that some folks may be too strung out on drugs to bother with health care, and a smaller percentage may simply by nature be mentally incapable. We used to have places where the mental people were housed, but that was back before the ACLU and others insisted that they had an inherent right to live freely.

As a result, they now live freely, if not in good health.

In regard to the meth-heads and other addicts: there is no reason to provide free health care for those who choose to engage in such a destructive lifestyle.

All in all, we don't need more governmental involvement in our healthcare systems; we need less! If it were possible, I'd select catastrophic coverage at a far lower price, and just cover incidentals out-of-pocket.

Unfortunately, that's not possible, and it's precisely because government has mandated all kinds of stupid stuff. I don't envision ever taking the little blue pill (the Pfizer Riser, Viagra) - yet by golly, the government has mandated that my health care plan has to provide it.

Frankly, if government got out of health care, it'd become less expensive - and thus even more widely available than is currently the case.

Comments

[NotYourDaddy]

Oh, my, God. I had no idea you could die of lack of health insurance. What are the symptoms? How long does it take? Is it curable? Is it contagious? Is there a vaccine for it?

My older brother hasn't had health insurance in about 30 years. And, so far, he's lived longer than I have... I had no idea he was terminal. I wonder if I ought to to tell him, or let him go on in blissful ignorance, since he's in perfect health.

I'm sure glad I have health insurance though. Otherwise, I might die someday. What a horrible thought!

[max]

It's probably best that your brother not know....

[ay care insurance]

Really it was a horrible that many people are ending their lives due to lack of health insurance.

[ay care insurance]

Really it was a horrible that many people are ending their lives due to lack of health insurance.

[ay care insurance]

Really it was a horrible that many people are ending their lives due to lack of health insurance.