Obamacare: The 47 Million Uninsured
Political Cartoon by Michael Ramirez
For the second time this month, congressional budget analysts have dealt a blow to the Democrat’s health reform efforts, this time by saying a plan touted by the White House as crucial to paying for the bill would actually save almost no money over 10 years.
A key House chairman and moderate House Democrats on Tuesday agreed to a White House-backed proposal that would give an outside panel the power to make cuts to government-financed health care programs. White House budget director Peter Orszag declared the plan “probably the most important piece that can be added” to the House’s health care reform legislation.
But on Saturday, the Congressional Budget Office said the proposal to give an independent panel the power to keep Medicare spending in check would only save about $2 billion over 10 years– a drop in the bucket compared to the bill’s $1 trillion price tag.
“In CBO’s judgment, the probability is high that no savings would be realized … but there is also a chance that substantial savings might be realized. Looking beyond the 10-year budget window, CBO expects that this proposal would generate larger but still modest savings on the same probabilistic basis,” CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a letter to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Saturday.
Some reforms ultimately will be passed by the Congress but Obamacare?
I don’t think it will happen.
If it does, the GOP will roll most of it back after the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Technorati Tags: Obamacare, Michael Ramirez
3 Comments
Ling
And that’s why it’s very important that none – or very few – Republicans in Congress should jump onboard the Obamacare bandwagon. Once they do, the leadership gets stuck in between – if they attack Obamacare in the ads, then it hits the turncoats too, and they won’t allow it to happen in their own states, which dilutes the impact of the ads.
Flap
I agree.
I don’t think many GOP members of Congress will be signing up for Obamacare. How many signed up for Porkulus?
That number is 3 which includes the turncoat Arlen Specter.
Kaz Vorpal
Check out the actual breakdown of the “47 million uninsured” numbers:
The Breakdown
The largest, overlapping, groups of uninsured in the US include:
9,000,000 Millionaires
27,000,000 people who make more than $50,000 per year, but choose not to get insurance
22,000,000 Young adults who can afford insurance, but choose not to
14,000,000 People who can already get medicaid, but choose not to
11,000,000 Illegal Immigrants
23,000,000 People who are actually insured. That’s right; you’ve been lied to…surprised?
This adds up to more than forty seven million, because of the overlap – for example young adults who are millionaires and change insurance companies fit into four categories, above…
Details about each category, and links to sources, are at the actual article:
http://butnowyouknow.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/who-are-the-47-million-uninsured/