The healthcare debate is one that every American should understand. Transforming it represents transforming 1/6th of the [U.S.] economy. The first thing to clarify is the confusion regarding the terms healthcare and health insurance. America provides Universal Healthcare now. If by Universal Healthcare, you mean every citizen can access healthcare. In 1986 congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act which requires ambulance services and hospital emergency rooms to service and treat any patient regardless of their ability to pay. What every American doesn’t have is Health Insurance. Commonly the figure of 47 million is used to indicate how many people in America do not have health insurance. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that 47 million people need our help. This is not true. This figure is misleading because it includes the following (statistics supplied by Keith Hennessey, former economic advisor to the White House):
- Almost 10 million non-citizens
- About 4.3 million who are on Medicaid/SCHIP programs but do not report that to the Census
- About 10.1 million who have household incomes at 300% over poverty levels
- About 6.4 million who are actually covered by Medicaid
- About 5 million adults without children
