reprinted from Dailykos.com
Would that make a difference in how you hear the debate? What I said it was 40% of all Americans with insurance? Would that make a difference?
You'd never know it listening to the endless blather of the
politicians and the media, but 100 million Americans - about 40% of all
us us with health insurance - already have some form of
"government-run" health plan.
Why isn't this talked about all the time? The Democratic
Congressional leadership and President Obama should be citing this fact
over and over again...
Below the fold, the numbers...
- barrettzinn's diary :: ::
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It only took a few Google searches to compile the data and it is apparent in testimony before Congress. Folks, 100 million Americans with insurance are already on some sort of Government plan.
43 million are on Medicare
42 million are on Medicaid
4 million are on Tricare (active and reserve military, plus retirees) - no link, this is an estimate
8 million are covered by the Veterans Administration
7.4 million are on SCHIP
1.8 million are served by the Indian Health Services
2.7 million Americans are offered the FEHBP
656,000 are US Post Office employees
3.8 million are full-time State government employees
10.9 million workers are full-time Local government employees - 6 million of them public school teachers.
Does anyone know a public school teacher without a good insurance plan?
We all know the government needs to get it's hands off of your Medicare, but to fully assess the government role in health insurance we must include all the private health insurance plans which are government-administered. These plans are contracted to private insurance companies, but because of the combined bargaining powers of government and civil service unions, they offer better benefits at a lower cost - exactly what we all want, right?
The numbers add up to more than 124 million people. 20% are either duplicates or people who don't enroll in their government-sponsored plans for some reason, according to the CBO. That leaves 100 million on the government health care-teat, roughly 40% of the 260 million Americans who have health insurance at all.
Am I missing something here? 100 Million of us already have "government" health insurance!!! Why isn't this number constantly being thrown in the face of the idiots who tell us the government should "stay out" of health care?
If Democrats pointed out that the "Public Option" is no more or less than what is already offered to 100 million people all over the country, whom the Republicans claim are "happy" with the "status quo", wouldn't that bring more people on board to finally get the Health Insurance reform bill Americans need?
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