The "Government"..i.e. WE are already paying for the care of the uninsured. The expensive way.

[JohnWxy]

The Republicans say they are fighting to keep Government from "taking over" health care. But "the Government", WE, are already paying for the care of the uninsured.

In 2004 we paid $34.6 Billion for the uninsured (about 85% of the total uncompensated care bill) according to the Kaiser Foundation.

"Over two-thirds of government spending for uncompensated care comes from the federal
government, most of which goes toward payments to hospitals in the form of
disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments—payments intended to offset losses hospitals
incur when large shares of their patients are unable to pay their hospital bills."

IF you project that cost to 2010-2019 the inflation adjusted number comes to $816 Billion - assuming that the number of uninsured grows in a linear fashion (actually it's more likely to climb in a curve with and increasing slope- which means a linear extrapolation provides a very conservative estimate.)

http://www.geocities.com/jwalkerxy/Uninssured_cost_inflated_2010-2019.xls

Now if we chose to insure the uninsured then they would get much more care in doctors offices instead of going to the hospital emergencey room 63% of the time. This would result in significant savings right away (compared to the current way of covering the uninsured). Of course, long term, if people go see a doctor on regular basis illnesses can be caught early and successfully treated for much less expense than if one goes for years with no doctor visits and let's an illness progress to more advanced stages requiring much more intensive and costly intervention.

[Wapsie B]

1. That's right, we certainly are paying for it.

It's just that instead of paying a government tax we pay it in ever-rising premiums.

[JohnWxy]

4. and the reason the Health Care Reform package (whichever one you choose) is so expensive is

the subsidies to insurance companies ("exchange subsidies") to pay them to take on the people they won't insure now:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/103xx/doc10310/06-15-HealthChoicesAct.pdf#PAGE=10


The cost in the Kennedy bill is $1.279 Trillion (Before considering the additional tax revenues built into the plan). If you take out the 20% private insurers need for administrative costs and profit and add in the 3% admin cost incurred by Medicare we could insure the uninsured for $1.054 trillion (over 10 yeare). NOw the CBO also recognized an increase in tax revenues in the Kennedy bill of $257 Billion (over 10 years) which would reduce the final cost of the Reform Package to $797 Billion over ten years (1.054 - .257 = $797).

Note that this is LESS THAN the $816 billion I projected (with inflation) for covering the uninsured without any health insurance reform - just continuing to do it the way we are now.

[Turbineguy]

2. Shhhhh!

Don't tell the Teabaggers. They'd be devastated. Well, perhaps not. After facts aren't important to them.

[JohnWxy]

3. "facts aren't important to them" - you are absolutely correct, but I'm hoping some of these facts

will find their way to those who are truly confused by this issue and certainly aren't going to find any information on MSM.
(with the shining exception of the Bill MOyer's Journal).