No surprise to anyone here but:
The number of peoplein the U.S. lacking health insurance may have grown as much as 9 percent to 50 million people last year, adding fuel to President Barack Obama’s push for overhauling the system.
The likely increase was driven by a jump in U.S. unemployment, said Ana Gupte, a Sanford Bernstein & Co. Inc. analyst in New York who follows UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc., the top two U.S. health insurers. The Census Bureau releases the annual figures tomorrow.
Most disturbing:
The census data won’t sway debate, said Julius Hobson, a senior health-policy analyst at the law firm Bryan Cave LLP in Washington. "If we get this data out there, is that going to make people more inclined to expand coverage? I don’t think so," Hobson said by telephone. "People seem more afraid of losing what they have than having other people covered. A lot is going to depend on the president’s speech."
Why these people should be worried on top of the fact that those with insurance still find themselves in bankruptcy due to medical debts and may find themselves the victims of homicidal recission:
The share of people in the U.S. getting health insurance through employment had fallen to 59.3 percent in 2007 from 64.2 percent in 2000, the institute says.
The number of employer insured dropped during meth fueled boom years.
What do they expect to happen in a long trough recession?