What do we mean by the 'uninsured?'

In the healthcare reform debates, one commonly cited statistic was "there are 47 million uninsured Americans." Economics professor Antony Davies examines this number, and asserts that based on the evidence, the actual number of uninsured Americans was far smaller.

[StateExempt]

@RFinkle2 - The government has been increasing its role in health care for the past several decades, and with little to show for it.

On a side note, I am one of the uninsured. I pay out of pocket - or would if I actually got sick or injured. This does not mean that I am without health care in general.

[Darkeklaw]

He's also asking could we have found a different way to help those who actually need the help without unraveling the current insurance system (i.e. what could we do to IMPROVE what we have)

[Jotto]

Thanks very much! Such informative videos.

[dontchastop]

@StateExempt It must have been a very brief seminar because this lecture lasted a whole three minutes. Are these students getting the Readers Digest version of economics?

[mrgmsrd]

Having worked in healthcare in low income areas, it is also possible that people who are low income and not legal residents (thus not eligible for Medicare and many not eligible for medicaid) can drive up the "uninsured" number. It would be interesting to see what analysis Prof. Davies has of the number of "underinsured" that is reported, and used as evidence of need for national healthcare

[jaspony]

I have car insurance. But it doesn’t fix my oil leak. It also doesn’t pay when a hose goes out or if I need new tires. It only helps me in catastrophic circumstances. Why in the world does our medical “insurance” cover even the most minor dr. visits? Have you ever looked at your dr. bill? I know that when I go pay cash it costs me 50 to 60% less than they charge insurance companies. The way to fix this system is for more people to get catastrophic insurance and pay for everything else.

[debatablescientist]

@ohcrapitsmrG And you also have to take into account the people who say they're insured, but aren't. He doesn't mention those people at all. I remember hearing a guy a while back complaining about being asked by the government if he had health insurance over and over. I can see people lying to try to keep from getting in trouble.

[blazerider]

I know insurance can be affected by market forces. The comment I was responding to suggested that removing insurance would drive down prices. Which it may, but not significantly. And it would likely not be worth the risk.

It's hard for medications to compete when most patients use whatever the doctor prescribes, without shopping around. This is partially because that's also what the insurance covers but i would find a significant rise in competition hard to believe without actual trials.

[stash]

The main point is why destroy the present system instead of adding to or fixing the present one? Centralized government run anything is wasteful and will take choices away from most people that now have them. Do we really want to turn our health over to some far away bureaucrat, with nowhere else to turn? Private insurance companies are tough enough, but we still have the choice to fire them and hire a different one. $65 trillion in promised and actual debt and we're going to dig even deeper.

[Darkeklaw]

I think you missed his point. We've upened a whole system that was working well for a misrepresented number. I myself think private insurance along with a system of government run Free Clinics would be adaquate... Then again I have insurance.

[Darkeklaw]

And nobody has ever been naive enough to think that everybody is covered. I don't know who ever stated that. He's saying that most people are provided insurance by their job. Some are insured by state programs, some who don't realize they are eligible for state programs and some who just aren't insured and are ineligible for state programs... He's saying the issue is being misrepresented. I don't understand how that makes him a creep.

[Darkeklaw]

Actually if left in the hands of government medical care much like college tuition does now will simply continue to skyrocket. Add in that Malpractice insurance for doctors is high, and the fact that there is already a bloated medicare and medicaid system... If all that was gotten rid of and if there was a federal mandate that made Public Insurance a true free market (States can limit which providers can be in their states) then Health insurance and health care costs would go down.

[quirkylwj]

I love that phrase "studies indicate...". No references, no studies needed.

[blazerider]

Laser eye surgery was a new technology and that was bound to happen regardless. Both are optional, meaning demand can be created, through social changes or price drops. Cancer treatments, for example, cannot create demand by dropping prices because the same amount of people will still have cancer and they have no way of changing that. Therefore, market forces would not affect any non-optional medical treatment.

[StateExempt]

@RFinkle2 - It was a lecture given for students that attended the IHS summer seminars.

And this video is a critique of the status quo - not an endorsement of it.

[ohcrapitsmrG]

How about the question - how many people are under insured (as in their insurance coverage does not really cover an ER visit for a stroke). Realistically many middle class people are underinsured and do not realize it. Is it really insurance when the end hospital visit cost as much as your annual salary? It really comes down to cost reduction not labeling who insured. Insurance companies have taken incentives to reduce but should middle class americans go bankrupt bc of lack of insurance

[StateExempt]

@dontchastop - No, he is just really informed about the issue and is presenting it for everyone to come to their own conclusions.

[BehindTheVideoGames]

Insurance is a voluntary thing. I wouldn't bat an eye if the numbers said that everyone in America had no insurance. You can live without insurance people, just not as long, seems pretty simple to me.

[dangeresque]

Shouldn't he have touched on false negatives as well? I.e. people who said they were insured but in fact are not. Seems like it might be a bit biased if you're ignoring this.

[jonescomplete]

@maemorri You can start by thanking Academic institutions for price gouging (for information of all things) and the government for essentially preventing all international pharmaceutical trade which gives local monopolies absolute power over the entire American medical market.
Eliminating drug cost and a physician’s need to enter private practice immediately after school (to pay for accumulated loans) might be a step in the right direction. We need to lower cost, not tickle it with gov money..