The myth of bankruptcy and medical debt

There are a lot of myths, some implied, that push the “universal care” bandwagon:

45 million uninsured “Americans”–a third of these are illegal aliens. To cover them is make a mockery of the law, to not do so is to leave the problem with unreimbursed care.

Uninsured “children”– To the feds, everyone is a child to age 21. Many of these are parents themselves, are elligible for military service, and are by no other measure “children”.

Uninsured young adults—yes, young adults often don’t buy insurance even when they can afford it; it is what us old fashioned types call “freedom” and with it come the other old fashioned concept of “responsibility”–they accept the risk of bankruptcy. In any event, nearly half of major health care expenditures of “uninsured” young adults are actually covered by other insurance because it is due to accidental injury where there is insurance that is responsible: automobile and workmanscomp.

There is some tweaking of the system needed to improve portability and risk rating issues, but no need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The easiest thing to do right off is to treat individually purchased insurance and employer purchased insurance with the same tax treatment. Just basic fairness. We should no make ourselves the wards of neither the government nor emplorers as to do so is to surrender freedom.