Much discussion about 47 million uninsured. Very little discussion about who they are.
Always included in that much touted number are scores of healthy young people — close to 20 million, by some accounts — who elect not to buy health insurance even though they can afford it. They voluntarily choose not to have health insurance — which is quite different from not being able to get health insurance.
Invulnerable? Not always.
Check out the new website, "don't be bob," that is trying to attract this segment of the uninsured population. It's good for these uninsured adults. It's good for the overall risk pool.
And it's a good start towards solving the problem with smart and savvy free-market solutions.
For more on that same sane notion of free-market solutions, have a look at the op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal by Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute. She writes:
"A new study by University of Minnesota economists Stephen Parente and Roer Feldman shows that Congress could boost by more than 12 million the number of people who have health insurance without spending taxpayer dollars. The change required is to allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, so they can shop for less expensive policies ... For example, a typical health-insurance policy in heavily regulated New York costs more than three times as much as in less regulated Iowa ($388 a month versus $98 a month for the same coverage)."
But you won't hear any of that free-market hooey coming out of Denver.
Always included in that much touted number are scores of healthy young people — close to 20 million, by some accounts — who elect not to buy health insurance even though they can afford it. They voluntarily choose not to have health insurance — which is quite different from not being able to get health insurance.
Invulnerable? Not always.
Check out the new website, "don't be bob," that is trying to attract this segment of the uninsured population. It's good for these uninsured adults. It's good for the overall risk pool.
And it's a good start towards solving the problem with smart and savvy free-market solutions.
For more on that same sane notion of free-market solutions, have a look at the op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal by Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute. She writes:
"A new study by University of Minnesota economists Stephen Parente and Roer Feldman shows that Congress could boost by more than 12 million the number of people who have health insurance without spending taxpayer dollars. The change required is to allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, so they can shop for less expensive policies ... For example, a typical health-insurance policy in heavily regulated New York costs more than three times as much as in less regulated Iowa ($388 a month versus $98 a month for the same coverage)."
But you won't hear any of that free-market hooey coming out of Denver.
