Issue date: 9/29/04 Section: Opinion

In all the political rhetoric in this election year, one domestic issue that seems to get a lot of coverage is the supposed catastrophe in the health care system, specifically the number of people without health insurance. Democrats and Republicans have proposed several alternatives to improve health care, from tweaking or reforming the current system to replacing it completely with a taxpayer-funded universal coverage system.

But before Americans allow the government to encroach upon their personal rights and responsibilities, some facts should be discussed about the current health care system. There is no crisis of uninsured, and the problems that do exist are largely due to state and federal policies that plague the system.

According to the Census Bureau, there are 44.9 million Americans who lack health insurance. This translates to 15.6 percent of the population, the same as in 1996. What most media reports left out was that more people have health insurance today than ever before.

One significant problem with the 44.9 million uninsured is how the Census Bureau got the information. In its survey, the Bureau records how many people did not have insurance at any time in the previous year. That means someone who changed jobs and had a temporary lapse in insurance is treated the same as someone who couldn't afford insurance all year long. According to the Pacific Research Institute, a public policy research organization, "three-quarters of the uninsured remain so for less than a year."

Also, the Census Bureau appears to have trouble counting the number of people on Medicaid who don't qualify as uninsured. According to the Bureau, 35 million people used Medicaid in 2003. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that 53 million people had received Medicaid assistance. This means the Census Bureau is counting people with Medicaid as uninsured, which creates an inaccurate picture of the situation.

A common misconception is that people without health insurance lack health care. Even without considering community health clinics and charities, this is not the case. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, there are more than 40 federal health care programs to help people in need, and as many as 14 million people who qualify have not enrolled in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Programs. Furthermore, it is against the law for hospitals to refuse emergency treatment to anyone, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. As long as there is free health care, one can expect there will always be some people who are uninsured.

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