Who are the uninsured and the poor, are they the same?

The Census Bureau Data is Misleading - Analysis of data from earlier Census Bureau and other government reports shows that roughly 7 million are illegal immigrants; roughly 9 million are persons on Medicaid; 3.5 million are persons already eligible for government health programs; and approximately 20 million have, or live, in families with incomes greater than twice the federal poverty level, or $41,300 for a family of four.

With folks talking about the uninsured in the United States; talk of national health care by some; and emphasis on the poor in our country ... Right Truth reader Kenny brought this article and also this article, from The Heritage Foundation, to my attention.

Poor is defined in the dictionary as: having little or no money, goods, or other means of support; dependent upon charity or public support. However, "only a small number of the 37 million per­sons classified as "poor" by the Census Bureau fit that description." Another important aspect of poor inside the US is "any effort to reduce the number of poor persons in the U.S. will be partially offset by current immigration policies.

Each year, immigra­tion (both legal and illegal) adds hundreds of thou­sands of new persons to the nation's poverty count. Overall, first-generation immigrants and their minor children account for nearly one-fourth of all poor people in the U.S. [37] (more)

Are you poor? And what about the illegal aliens here in the US?

The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various gov­ernment reports:

* Forty-three percent of all poor households actu­ally own their own homes. [snip]

* Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning.

* Only 6 percent of poor households are over­crowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

* The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe.

* Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

* Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

* Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception. [snip]

* Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher. (read it all, view the charts and graphs, here)

By those standards hubby and I are 'poor'. If those are the standard by which our government judges the poor, (and presumably the poor who need health insurance), there's something terribly wrong. The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) give a number of "poor" in the United States at 37 million. Now, to the illegal aliens:

The CPS and other Census surveys record whether an individual is an immigrant or non-immigrant but do not distin­guish between legal and illegal immigrants. Close examination reveals that the number of self-identi­fied immigrants appearing in the CPS exceeds the potential number of legal immigrants in the U.S. by some 10 or 11 million persons. These "extra" immi­grants in the CPS are, in fact, illegal immigrants.[38] Because millions of illegal immigrants are reported in the CPS, these same illegal immigrants are also included in the official count of poor persons which is based on CPS data. [snip]

As long as the current steady influx of low-skilled, poverty-prone immigrants continues, efforts to reduce the number of poor in the U.S. will be far more difficult. (more)

On the health care situation:

For those in Congress who want a government health care monopoly, the answer is simple: progressively expand government control over the entire health care sector of the economy, and push persons out of private health coverage, beginning with a robust expansion of the State Childrens' Health Insurance Program(SCHIP).

For Americans who want to take personal control over their health care decisions, a more sophisticated policy is required. Meanwhile, in reading the Census Bureau numbers, policymakers should bear three things in mind:

The Census Bureau data is misleading. Most of the uninsured are in and out of health coverage. Current Federal Tax Policy Fuels Uninsurance.(more)

Now, chew on that information for a time. Let me know what you think about it.

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Comments

[Rastaman]

The glaring flaw in the Census report is the inclusion of illegal aliens. Please, not "immigrants". ALIENS.

Illegal aliens should be head-counted, you bet. But that's it. They should NOT be listed in income figures, health figures or any other statistics that are for us Americans and only us Americans.

By doing this the Census Bureau is promoting the concept that these illegal ALIENS are some kind of U.S. residents. They are not residents. They are not immigrants. They are foreign invaders and fugitives from our laws. This isn't ranting, it's simply the plain facts. We have laws, these people break them by coming here illegally and hiding out while they take illegal jobs using false papers, jobs that Americans DO want, and take them at lower wages, which forces down our standard of living.

Rasta

[Flanders Fields]

Great report, Debbie. Rastaman has the comments right, too.

Most of the ones who are said not to have health insurance actually do. They will be treated at hospitals probably for any and all conditions not related to cosmetic reasons. Their bill will be billed to them, but it will be paid by higher prices which are built into the health care system. It will not likely be paid by them, but payment will come from the rest of us, with or without insurance in the form of higher bills for us.

It will be the working people who are hardest hit and who would have the most difficult time obtaining insurance on their own. They are usually not eligible for the medicaid/medicare. Effectively, we do have socialized health care - except for working Americans.

Some of the richest people of the world live in Mexico and South and Central America. Why are they not treating their people decently so that they remain there? They do not want to share their wealth or resources.

[Phil]

Hi Debbie,

I can speak for myself on this issue, I am what is classified as poor but I buy my own cheep health insurance it's not the greatest but it does come out of my pocket, I have a friend of mine who works for a Printing agency who makes roughly 25,000 per year he has no Insurance now he has a better income that what I do but he just pays outright for his medical bills when they come in.

The trouble is that even many who do make a fairly decent wage still do not want to have health care and that is by choice not by necessity.

[John]

I am one of those uninsured. Well I was until a week ago- now my job provides a very basic insurance policy.

But we didn't have need for insurance. My wife has insurance through her job and my daughter finished all her visits with her pediatrician a few months back (we paid for those visits in cash).

BlueCross wanted $275/month to insure us. It was a better use of the money to drop it into a savings account for medical expenses.

[Minimum Wage]

"43 percent of poor households actually own their own home."

This is an excellent example of why government "poverty" statistics are not very meaningful, and also why said statistics are abused so often by those with a political axe to grind.

It took me some searching and digging, but it turns out that roughly three-quarters of "poor" homeowners own their home free and clear.

This suggests that poor homeowners, by and large, are not "working poor" who bought their homes at market prices.

These poor homeowners, for the most part, are elderly retirees who bought their homes decades ago, when they had middle class incomes and when prices were far lower - or they acquired thrir home under preferential, non-market transactions. For example, many of them live in homes they inherited or bought at preferential prices and/or terms from family members.

There are also many poor "homeowners" -counted by the government as such - who own cheap trailers which are parked on rented lots. You consider that a homeowner? I don't.

According to the government, a retiree living in a 2,000-sq ft house he owns free and clear, living on a modest Social Security check, can be "poor", while a childless hamburger flipper working full time at minimum wage and paying half his income to rent a 10 x 10 room is "not poor".

Tell me, which one enjoys a higher standard of living? Which one has greater resources?

[Minimum Wage]

"80 percent of poor households have air conditioning"

As someone who is "not poor" and has never had air conditioning, I find this hard to believe.

But most poor households rent, and as a general rule, rented dwellings either come with air conditioning or they don't, so very few renters actually have a say in the matter.

And what good is "having" air conditioning if you cannot afford to run it?

[ليبيا]

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