Kevin's Weblog 2006-06-15

Universal Health Care for Cheap?

2006-06-15 16:50 in /politics/CA

On the radio this morning they were talking about problems with overcrowded emergency rooms and high uninsured rates in California and they mentioned proposals to create a statewide universal health care system. At one point they said that it was estimated this would cost the state $7-9 billion a year. I imagine most people think that’s a lot of money, but if it’s really true it would be a phenomenal bargain. There’s about 36 million residents of California, so we’re talking between $200 and $250 for each person. Given that Yahoo! claims that they spend about $5000/yr for health coverage for each member of my family, that’s an incredibly low number.

It’s so low that it seems like it has to be wrong. Either that or someone’s definition of “universal” is a bit different from mine.

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sarah wrote:

My guess, without having heard the story or doing any further looking into it, is that they're proposing some sort of coverage for the currently uninsured. Of course, that won't work (not at that cost anyway) since companies will drop their insurance coverage if there's something state provided. So yeah. Either somebody did the math horribly wrong or their definition of "universal" (or maybe "health care") is wonky.

(2006-06-15 17:58)

Someone wrote:

It's a little sketchy, but that could be the incremental cost by these folks' math. They're counting on huge decreases in overhead, and on Yahoo still paying a lot of that money in taxes:
http://www.healthcareforall.org/studies.html

(2006-06-24 02:07)

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2006-06-15

Universal Health Care for Cheap?

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