Sep 15, 2009

Who are the Uninsured?

The Institute of Medicine published America's Uninsured Crisis early this year with the most informative table I've seen on just who are the people who are uninusred in the USA. Table has demographic and income distribution data. I didn't know, for example, that immigrants (legal + illegal) make up 20% of the uninsured population. No breakdown between them. Also, the number of illegal immigrants may be too low, because the data are based on a sample, and illegal immigrants may be less inclined to respond.
Two ways to look at this: Way 1: OMG, we could end up paying a lot to insure illegal immigrants (and encourage more to come) if we're not careful. Way 2: OMG, health reform won't help a substantial portion of our hardest working and most vulnerable residents. I'm a 2nd way kind of gal, but I can see the arguments of the 1st way folks.

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