Of course, it's just those lazy welfare mom's that don't have health insurance. It's good for nothing slouches that don't have work, don't look for work. THEY are the people you want to cover with your expensive Universal Health Care, with my taxes.

Bzzzzt. The welfare mom myth. The lazy drag on the economy myth. I've said it before, I'll say it again.

The uninsured? We used to call them the Working Class.

From a new study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Uninsured and the Affordability of Health Insurance Coverage

The 2005 Current Population Survey (CPS) is used to estimate what share of uninsured Americans are eligible for coverage through Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), need financial assistance to purchase health insurance, and are likely able to afford insurance. Twenty-five percent are eligible for public coverage, 56 percent need assistance, and 20 percent can afford coverage. This varies across uninsured populations: 74 percent of children are eligible for public programs, and 57 percent and 69 percent of parents and childless adults, respectively, need assistance. A central conclusion is that a large percentage of uninsured adults need help purchasing health insurance.

A few key points.

1. Twenty-five percent of the uninsured could be covered through public programs. This can because of "administrative barriers, limited outreach efforts, or lack of knowledge about eligibility for public health insurance coverage, or because families themselves do not make the necessary efforts to obtain coverage." That's a lot of uninsured Americans that should/could be covered. The cost is not just to them, it is to the rest of us as well. We pay when they go bankrupt (50% of personal bankruptcies), we pay when they use emergency services with no health care ($922 a year in extra premiums), and we pay for lost productivity in the work place that causes price inflation (no measure).
2. Twenty percent can afford coverage. This reminds me of our old friend Ogre, who says he doesn't need health care and dammit no universal health care bullshit is going to make him pay for it. No sirree bob. The problem is, of course, that when old Ogre gets taken out by a faulty break line or trips down the stairs and breaks his spine in half - we'll pay for it. He has no insurance, which is his right, so we get to foot the bill through higher premiums, higher service fees, higher copays, higher coinsurance, etc.
3. Fifty-six percent of the uninsured can't afford health care. The statistic in the article show that even if they make THREE TIMES the miniumum wage, they can't afford health care. A living wage, that is what Democrats need to fight for, and the living wage could be much lower if we had single-payer health care for all.

Join the NC Defend Health Care email group at Yahoo and guess what...they say we're finally, almost, about to test our new website.