Inspired by reading articles in the Guardian after the time when comments were allowed (yet all I say is true of most of the reports Europeans are being given by their own press):
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To the European news outlets who make the US out to be some third world medical wasteland,
I’m afraid you’ve reported numerous inaccuracies in the way you have portrayed the current US health care issue. This gives your readers a false sense of what the situation is over here. There are 47 million (about 15% of population) without insurance, however:
* approximately 12 million (4%) are illegal immigrants
* approximately 20-25 million (6%-8%) make $50,000+ and choose not to carry health insurance
* approximately 10-15 million (3%-4%) have trouble getting private health insurance due to poverty or health. These people qualify for Medicare or Medicaid and simply haven’t registered for it.
* There is Federal health insurance for the poor (Medicaid) and the elderly (Medicare) already, as there has been for the last two and a half generations.
* No one (not even illegal immigrants) is denied medical care in the US. Free medical care can be had in Emergency Departments (and with about 1/3 the wait Canadians experience) and free clinics throughout the country.
* Those who can afford health insurance but elect not to carry it due to good health are billed for services when they see a doctor or go to the hospital. That is the calculated risk they choose to run by not carrying the health insurance. If they are wise, they instead choose to spend the money they save on a Health Savings Account or other investments (which theoretically gives them even more money to pay out of pocket).
* When I quit teaching full time to work part time and go to school part time, I lost my employer-based health insurance. Consequently, I do not qualify for student discounts (I just went full-time with school last year, so I suppose I qualify for it now) and have paid for private health insurance (with which I’m thrilled) since 2003 on $10-$15,000 per year. True, I could go on Medicaid, but I am very happy with my private insurance ($140 per month) and have no intention of dropping my current insurer until I’m done with this degree and have an employer-based plan once again.
It is important to remember that all but one network or cable news outlet in the US is as invested in “making things work” (in a big-picture sense, anyway) for the current administration as Pravda was invested in its state back in the 1950s. If you’ve compiled your numbers by simply parroting what US news is reporting, then you have been gravely mislead (and in turn mislead your own readers). If you performed some kind of spurious survey of your own, then you have lied. In either case, I exhort you to apply higher standards in the future.
