Health Insurance News

Not all of America’s 46 million uninsured people can be considered victims of a system that excludes them financially or because of pre-existing conditions. According to an unpublished Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of the CDC’s 2008 National Health Interview Survey, 2 percent of uninsured people said they simply didn’t want health insurance. Some experts say others who could - and should - buy insurance choose not to because they perceive the costs as too high.

It may feel endless, but the health care debate in many ways is just getting started – the various bills are nearly ready, and full debate in the House and Senate lies just ahead. And yet, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, 6 out of 10 people in the United States are confused about the plans to overhaul the health system.

Perhaps no other issue Congress deals with touches every American as intimately as health care. Yet a new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health finds that, so far, the public feels profoundly shut out of the current health overhaul debate.

Americans like their beer, wine and spirits. Sales are good, even in bad times. And, for most people, modest consumption of alcohol can be beneficial to their health.

Taxing high-cost insurance plans to fund health care reform is a bad idea. In fact, it could threaten the medical insurance plans of middle-class workers who obtain coverage from their employers. For many of them, especially those in states with high medical costs, there is nothing “gold-plated” about their health coverage.

Numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2008 illustrate the point. About 27% of adults age 18-34 are uninsured. About 13% of those 35 or older are also uninsured. More than half of the uninsured are minorities. Being uninsured isn?t just about being out of work: About 27.8 million people ?without coverage are working, either part or full time.

An estimated one-third to one-half of the $2.2 trillion Americans spend annually on health care in the U.S. is spent on unnecessary tests, treatments and doctor visits. Much of that merely buys time for the body to heal itself.

In what may become the most talked-about moment of President Obama’s speech to Congress on health care, Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, pointed his finger and shouted, “You lie!”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Tuesday unveiled his long-awaited compromise blueprint for healthcare reform, proposing new taxes on high-end insurance plans and offering nonprofit insurance cooperatives as an alternative to a controversial government-run option.

Who will benefit - and who won’t - if Congress overhauls America’s health-care system?