There is one dimension to the uninsured that is usually ignored by conservatives (and I count myself as a conservative): those who are medically uninsurable.
If you are young and have no chronic conditions, have never once taken, say, a Prozac, or have an employer with health insurance, then you are probably not aware of this problem.
But try to start your own company, or retire before age 65 (USA), and if you have the slightest blemish on your health record, you will either end up uninsured, or be unable to get insurance for whatever ails you or anything that a lawyer might possibly construe to be a result of this.
The result is that a lot of those with incomes of $50,000 with no insurance are NOT there by choice – they are there because nobody in the capitalist system will sell them health insurnace.
As more boomers (and I’m near the front of the boomer cohort) encounter this situation, the politics will change. Not for ideological reasons, but selfish ones.
You save your money, lead a good capitalist life, and want to retire early (say, age 60). Oops! You have hereditary high blood pressure. So much for health insurance – or at least any that would cover a heart attack, stroke or other ailments that hypertension contributes to!
I would like to see the statistics on how many are like myself – working only to get health insurance.
In spite of this, I don’t advocate a Canadian system. We do have the best available health care in the world, which is why we get so many “health tourists.” Our local Mayo clinic has quite a staff of translators.
But… the uninsurability problem is real, and anti-capitalist (if you don’t save your money, you can quit and qualify for government insurance for the poor, but if you are a saver, quitting puts all of your assets at risk).
Ultimately, health payments insurance (which is really what we should be talking about – it’s pretty hard to insure health) has gaps in the US – for those who are uninsurable and not eligible for employer or retiree group insurance, and for those who are too poor to afford it but make too much to get Medicaid.
There are problems. The solution is not a single payer system, but reasonable reforms to the market system.
