Comments on: Edwards Health Care Plan

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:33:47 +0000

The other states with high proportions and numbers of uninsured are: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, and North Carolina. Other states with high proportions (but lower numbers) are Arizona, Idaho, and Mississippi. Does that answer your question?

BTW Alaska and Oklahoma have high percentages of uninsured, too. I attribute that to the large numbers of native Americans in those states.

By: The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Universal coverage

The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Universal coverage — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:17:07 +0000

[...] There’s quite a bit of discussion of the Edwards healthcare proposal. Ezra Klein’s first blush reaction to the plan is that he likes it; Steve Verdon isn’t completely negative on the plan although he does provide some useful criticism; Balloon Juice and Newshog are both critical of the plan because it doesn’t remove insurers from the picture. [...]

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:57:07 +0000

Dave,

Interesting, I didn't know that the uninsured were so concentrated. Is there a connection with illegal immigration possibly?

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:22:38 +0000

I'll take a different tack on this question since I'm sure everybody is bored with my prescriptions. People without healthcare coverage is a local problem. Just two states (Texas and California) have a quarter of all the uninsured. Add just a handful of other states that simultaneously have high numbers of uninsured and a high percentage of uninsured and it accounts for half of all of the uninsured nationwide. That strongly suggests that at least part of the problem may be the Medicaid rules in those states. When you examine the issue even more closely (rather than just in aggregate), in every state without exception in which there is simultaneously a large number of uninsured and a large percentage of uninsured, the state has a large population, numerically and by percentage, of immigrants. There is simply no way to make both open borders and universal coverage fiscally sound. Please don't hold out Britain, Canada, France, or Germany as examples for me. Britain is an island, for goodness sake. And the social situations in Canada, France, and Germany are completely different than they are here. If any of those countries were experiencing the rate and type of immigration that we are and have been, their healthcare systems would collapse. Don't construe this as my being anti-immigrant (I'm not). I'm just stating the facts. Add the free rider problem (people who can afford healthcare insurance who don't carry it) and the problem of universal coverage becomes much, much smaller. The solution should be tailored to the problems we actually have.

By: Overtaken by Events

Overtaken by Events — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:14:06 +0000

The Warm Fuzzies...

Steve Verdon over at Outside the Beltway takes a lengthy look at John Edward's proposal for universal healthcare coverage, but really could have stopped at this line: How can you not like. Cheaper, yet better health care, and for everyone......

By: Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator

Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:47:28 +0000

Edwards' Health Plan Includes Tax Hike...

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said he would raise taxes on some Americans to help e...

By: Medical Blog

Medical Blog — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Her husband was a farmer and she worked part-time, so they had no health insurance. She said she did not know how they were going to pay the medical bills, she guessed they'd have to sell a cow. I imagine they wound up declaring medical ... Edwards Health Care Plan Pre-existing medical conditions are the same way as if we knew who was going to have the car accidents. In short, these people aren t going to be getting health insurance, they will be getting heavily subsidized health care. ...