The uninsured in America

We're not doing so bad after all.

The U.S. Census Bureau has lit the fuse for the next battle in health care reform. The uninsured rate and numbers have dwindled, and that is good news. Why they dwindled might seem not so good.

Allegedly, now only 45.7 million of us are without insurance (or as our detractors say, "are without health care); about 15.3 percent of the current population. The drop is attributed to more people enrolling onto government health plans (more than 300,000 in Massachusetts along, thanks to the Connector).

On the other hand, this means that more than 255 million Americans are covered under a health plan.

Stick with me on this: At 255 million (the number of Americans with a health plan) it would make a country the third largest in the world, next to China and India. That we have the resources and systems in place to insure so many people (more than eight times the population of Canada) is a great accomplishment.

202 million Americans get their insurance through an employer, a number that held steady. The rate (just under 60 percent) is lower, but that is not so dismal news. After all, we have been fighting a difficult economy. I think it is a strong indicator of the important people place on group insurance.

Of the remaining folks without insurance, no more than 15 million, or five percent, are chronically uninsured. Those aged 18-34 comprised 54 percent of the uninsured, and that produces an interesting and vitally important issue.

The drive toward "universal health care" is a misnomer. The honest term is "mandatory universal health care," meaning forcing everyone by law to purchase health insurance. Now think about this.

If more than half of the uninsured are aged younger than 35, and we use the law to force them to buy health insurance, what does this mean? It means that we want young, healthy people to underwrite the cost of older people - of us Baby Boomers. Once again, the Baby Boomers want to be bailed out by someone else.

The other fascinating uninsured statistic is that of the new immigrants, who still make up 33 percent of the uninsured. Well over half of the uninsured, and many in this category, qualify for government health care, but refuse to sign up.

There are many reasons to reform U.S. health care, but the uninsured rate is not one of them. Don't let anyone get away with that myth any longer.