Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Health Care For Less?
So, the Harry Reid health insurance bill going through the Senate will increase taxes by $518 billion initially. I refer to it as the “Harry Reid” bill because it has no resemblance to the bills that came out of the Senate committees and was concocted under the cover of darkness over this past weekend.
Anyway, it will increase taxes by a reported $518 billion for the purpose of insuring the “30 million uninsured.” That comes to $17,266 per individual to insure all of these allegedly uninsured. Or, with the average family consisting of 3.14 persons according to the US Census Bureau, $54,217 per family.
So, I wondered, how does that compare to the average health insurance premium in the United States. Just how much do these “unaffordable” health insurance premiums the Democrats have so vilified as “too expensive” for the average family actually cost?
According to an article on About.com:
In a report (Individual Health Insurance 2009: A Comprehensive Survey of Premiums,Availability, and Benefits) made public in October 2009, America's Health Insurance Plans (a trade group representing health insurance companies) presented some interesting information that gives a sense of what health insurance policies cost when purchased by an individual.Across the country, the annual premium was $2,985 for a single person and $6,328 for a family. The annual premium was very different from state to state. For example, the premium for a family health plan in New York was $13,296, while a similar plan in Iowa was $5609. The annual premiums for health plans were also very different depending if the annual deductible was high or low. For example, family plans with no deductible had an average premium of $12686 each year, while plans with an annual deductible of $10,000 had an average premium of $5380 each year.
So while the premiums obviously vary widely according to the options a family selects, the average family health insurance premium costs $6,328 per year. Those “outrageous” private health insurance premiums actually cost $47,889 per year less than the “affordable” health insurance plan that Harry Reid has concocted when prorated over his target audience of an allegedly 30 million uninsured.
It seems that the Democrat plan to “lower the cost” of health care is actually going to cost eight and one half times more than what those nasty private insurance companies charge. Perhaps the citizens need to be investigating the excesses and illegal practices of Congress. It appears that the health insurance industry is actually doing a good job holding down the cost of health insurance.
If Reid had thought to simply buy insurance from the private companies for the alleged “uninsured” it would have only cost the taxpayers $60.46 billion. So it makes you wonder, what is this really all about? Is it about insuring the “uninsured” or is it about giving more power to Washington and socializing our national economy? The data would suggest it certainly isn’t about “cutting the cost of health care” as these bozos in Washington continually repeat.
Anybody ready for a tea party?
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: Democrats, Harry Reid, health care, insurance, taxes, tea party
