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Just for fun some day, say maybe on a slow Monday, take a poll of your friends or co-workers, and ask how many people they think do not have health insurance in America. The answer will, no doubt surprise and sadden you. The common response is somewhere around 40-60% of the population. This is sad because it shows just how well the rhetoric machine can influence the uninformed. It is surprising because the actual number is lower than 10%.

Even those on the extreme left do not claim a figure anywhere near the 40-60%. The most common scary number the left likes to throw around is that 45 million Americans are without health insurance - a number that is disingenuous, to say the least. But even that number works out to only about 15% of the population.

Of those 45 million that are said to be without health insurance, there are about 10-15 million people who make over $75,000.00 a year. These are folks who could easily purchase their own health insurance but simply choose not to. That brings the number down to 30-35 million, or around 10%.

Of the remaining 30-35 million there are young people who feel age is on their side and are not terribly concerned about health insurance. There are children who are actually covered under Medicaid and there are those individuals who for one reason or another do not work, either through choice or through circumstances. So you can see that the number is easily less than 10% anyway.

The rhetoric machine has been so successful that it has convinced people of a crisis where there is none. Sure it is tragic that any would be without health insurance and it would seem to make sense to come up with a way to cover that small minority. But why are we looking to place 90% of the population under socialized, government health care when they are already covered?

Do you truly believe that a government run health care system would be better? Do you truly believe it would be free? If you do, I would suggest you take a look at a government run health care system that already exists it is called the Veterans Hospital system. Enough said.

Learn more about this author, Dr. Stephen D..
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