When it comes to health insurance in America’s cities, you don’t have to look far for contrasts.
Mount Pleasant had the lowest percentage of people lacking health insurance in 2008 among relatively large cities in the Southeast. Its 6.2 percent ranked 22nd among all U.S. cities.
Across the Cooper River, that picture is much bleaker. North Charleston ranked 481st in the nation with 25.1 percent of its 84,902 residents without health insurance. Among adults ages 18 to 64 living in the city, 30.5 percent are uninsured.
The figures come from the U.S.Census Bureau, which obtained data from the nation’s 532 cities with populations of at least 65,000.
So do 17.4% in South Carolina lack health care? Does Charleston have a public hospital and clinic where basic services are available without regard for ability to pay?
“So do 17.4% in South Carolina lack health care? Does Charleston have a public hospital and clinic where basic services are available without regard for ability to pay? ”
‘The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?’ said Scrooge.
‘At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,’ said the gentleman, taking up a pen, ‘it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.’
‘Are there no prisons?”
‘Plenty of prisons,’ said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
‘And the Union workhouses.’ demanded Scrooge. ‘Are they still in operation?’
‘Both very busy, sir.’
‘Oh. I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,’ said Scrooge. ‘I’m very glad to hear it.’
…
‘Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.’
‘If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population -Dickens
Yes indeed — Mr. Scrooge enjoyed a conversion of heart that Christmas morning and when he did so he flung open the windows and . . . lobbied for the State to engage in a larger confiscatory tax system, so that a large bureaucratic health “system” might be expanded and people might be put on their State-controlled assembly lines to receive Warm Loving Tender Personal Customized HealthCare delivered in a means-tested way by State workers. The Cratchett family waited anxiously on the State to deliver their Christmas Turkey and save Tiny Tim . . . . and though Tiny Tim was not saved, they did receive a somewhat-shrivelled Christmas Turkey five years later from the Department of Free Food For All, after they had filled out the requisite forms and waited in line.
Oh . . . wait . . .
Thank God Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, rather than Brian.
I’m not sure about the turkey, but Britain now has a single payer health care system. Maybe that’s Scrooge’s legacy. My British friends seem to like it.
It is true that the uninsured do have access to health care–which we the insured, the tax payers and those who pay cash for health care pay for in higher premiums, higher taxes and higher medical bills.
Or perhaps “conservatives” would prefer the poor and the uninsured had better die, and decrease the surplus population. Or maybe we can return to poor houses, debtor prisons and the way things were in the 19th century generally.
But South Carolina is better off than Texas–where 25% are without medical insurance and the other 75% pay for their health care through higher insurance premiums, higher taxes and higher medical bills.
It’s even higher in Dallas, where not only to the Dallas tax payers pay for indigent medical care for Dallas County residents, but for Denton County and wealthy Collin County also.
[Off topic comment deleted by Elf]
[Brian] I spend a fair amount of time around our public health system and am quite aware that my clients who use it (that’s most of them) have better, more accessible health care than I do through my insurance.
Mr. Peck, Tarrant County also has a googly amount of influx from surrounding counties. Personally, I don’t mind paying those particular taxes, because I believe that decent communities have basic health care available. Specifically as a Christian, I support that aspect of my community. I don’t believe that insurance is, by and large, the best way to provide that care, particularly when it comes down to insuring every ache and pain (catastrophic insurance I believe is reasonable). I am so aware that medicare and medicaid played a part in the closure of many rural hospitals and services, so I am wary of federal involvement.
[Incorrect statements] from the left – that we don’t have health care – and [incorrect statements] from the right – that systems like Canada and England have are terrible and disliked – are impeding a reasonable solution to the problem. And, of course, everyone has their ideological bone to pick, so I see no positive outcome to the current debate.
[Edited by Elf]
[Comment deleted by Elf]
Elf,
Illegal migration directly affects health care costs and availability. How exactly is that off topic? Employment directly affects health insurance provided by employers and the ability for employees to pay for their own health insurance. So again, how is the fact of illegal migrants taking jobs from US citizens and being included in statistics designed to influence the debate on health care “off topic”?
I believe the issue of illegal migrants has a direct bearing on health care. What is your line of reasoning that the issue is “off topic”? You may disagree with my assertions, and you may even dislike the implications of the facts I have presented, but to say they are “off topic” seems arbitrary from my perspective. I am willing to be educated as to why the issue of the linkage between illegal migrants, health care, and unemployment are taboo subjects at T19.
Elf,
Illegal migration directly affects health care costs and availability. How exactly is that off topic? Employment directly affects health insurance provided by employers and the ability for employees to pay for their own health insurance. So again, how is the fact of illegal migrants taking jobs from US citizens and being included in statistics designed to influence the debate on health care “off topic”?
I believe the issue of illegal migrants has a direct bearing on health care. What is your line of reasoning that the issue is “off topic”? You may disagree with my assertions, and you may even dislike the implications of the facts I have presented, but to say they are “off topic” seems arbitrary from my perspective. I am willing to be educated as to why the issue of the linkage between illegal migrants, health care, and unemployment are taboo subjects at T19.
Ah, I see…the argument of power and silence. So good of you to enlighten me as to why my reasoning and comments about criminals stealing from the health care system are irrelevant to the discussion of the high rates of uninsured, especially when such high percentages of those that are uninsured fall into that category of illegal migrants. It is certainly educational to know why my comments were “off topic”. Thank you. Enjoy the power.
The real question is, of course, which figure to pick as representative to enforce the fraud of a “crisis” so as to get the government in charge so it can run all things as well as it has heretofore, right? Looks like North Charleston ought to be the right one for that purpose. Of course, one could see how many people in each location are on Medicaid and Medicare already and assess the viability of government healthcare, but that would require critical thinking and application rather than knee-jerk responses. Epecially since there is “so much waste and fraud” in the programs mentioned.
Just sayin’ ………….
As a Canadian, I just love these comments about how terrible our state health care systems are. I can barely rise from my rationed-induced weakness and tap out the approved government comments on my state-supplied keyboard.
As a Christian, I just love these comments about “confiscatory tax systems” (are there any other kind?) and wonder if that would include Acts 5.
Mike Peterson
Greenwood, NS
9. Mad Padre wrote:
[blockquote]As a Christian, I just love these comments about “confiscatory tax systems†(are there any other kind?) and wonder if that would include Acts 5.[/blockquote]
I’ve noticed that our “confiscatory tax” opponents grow strangely silent when the subject of Ananias and Sapphira comes up. At least our IRS penalty for tax evasion isn’t quite a severe as St. Peter’s.
It was reported the other day that the administrative costs of American private insurance is 16%, while the administrative costs of Medicare are 4%. If you are at all interested in the difference, consider such factors as what those insurance companies are spending on lobbying or the salaries of their CEOs; then check out the salary of the CEO for Medicare (which is prohibited from lobbying).
The reported administrative costs of Medicare are a bit low and of the private insurers a bit high, but the discrepancy is very real even after making appropriate adjustments. (My sources so something more like 5.2% versus 8+%. And the difference in salaries and lobbying expense is huge. Private insurers aren’t “more efficient” than Medicare.
Regarding Acts 5, Ananias, and Sapphira, I’m glad at least a couple of people have the courage to advocate a Pope-led theocracy! 😉 Of course, it seems to me that their sin might have had a little something to do with [url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts 5:3-4&version=ESV]deceit[/url].
Well, that was a misleading link on my part! [url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+5:3-4&version=ESV]This one should be closer to the mark.[/url] (NB: Spaces in URLs make for bad links, so replace spaces with plus signs.)
11. Don R wrote:
[blockquote]Of course, it seems to me that their sin might have had a little something to do with deceit.[/blockquote]
Doesn’t tax evasion have “a little something to do with deceit”?
[blockquote]Doesn’t tax evasion have “a little something to do with deceit� [/blockquote]
I’d says it’s both deceitful and criminal.