Inconvenient Truth About Health Insurance

Media accounts of the U.S. Census Bureau's report of health insurance and poverty in America were not responsible for the wild swings in the Dow Jones Industrial Average this week, but you might be forgiven for thinking so.

The New York Times sobbed yesterday:

The bureau reported a large increase in the number of Americans who lack health insurance, data that ought to send an unmistakable message to Washington: vigorous action is needed to reverse this alarming and intractable trend.

Interestingly, the Club for Growth responded with the opposite diagnosis and prescription:

Of course, Hillary Clinton and her cronies fail to mention that of the 2.2 million people who became uninsured in 2006, 1.4 million, or 64%, had a household income of $75,000 or higher. In other words, an overwhelming majority of the newly uninsured can afford health insurance but are making the choice to forgo insurance because they believe it is not worth the expense.

“The conclusion to draw from this statistic is not socialized medicine,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey, “but the need to deregulate healthcare in this country and make health insurance more affordable. One of the best ways to do this is by passing Rep. John Shadegg’s Healthcare Choice Act, allowing insurance companies to comply with any one state’s regulatory regime and sell to individuals in all 50 states. Healthcare in this country is so overregulated and expensive, some states, like Washington, require health insurance companies to cover such crucial procedures as acupuncture, chiropractors, and massage therapy. It’s no wonder more Americans are choosing not to purchase state-mandated luxury health insurance policies.”

In much the same way government-control proponents argue we need to run up taxes on gasoline because it is hot outside, they want us to believe that we need to dismantle our health insurance markets and turn everyone over to the government because a growing chunk of the upper-middle class is deciding to flee the over-regulated, over-priced health insurance markets.

The facts clearly indicate the poor in America are gaining insurance coverage rapidly and the middle class would benefit from deregulation, not a government takeover.

Would You Hire This Train Wreck?

Fayette County Detention Center Director Ron Bishop is trying to weasel his way out of paying $832,000 in jury verdicts awarded against him last year for violations of Kentucky's Civil Rights Act, retaliation, and racial discrimination.

The lawsuits came as a result of some of his illegal activites in the 1990's while he was Director of the Jefferson County jail.

Meanwhile, Bishop is facing similar charges here in Lexington and is, predictably, trying to escape to another job in yet another city.

The Myth Of Skyrocketing Uninsured Rates

Much like the failed War on Poverty, which has spent $11 trillion on itself without having any impact, the War on lack of health insurance is going nowhere fast.

Time to throw more money at it, say government gurus from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to Steve Beshear and Daniel Mongiardo.

A chart from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that since its 1997 start the Clinton SCHIP boondoggle has had no impact on the rate of uninsured in this country.

So, of course, the House of Representatives wants to throw another $50 billion in to speed things up.

And then there is this late-breaking news from the CATO Institute regarding government efficiency in SCHIP:

According to a cost estimate released by the Congressional Budget Office last Friday, the Senate-passed legislation expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would enroll an additional 6.1 million children in SCHIP and Medicaid. However, 2.1 million would lose their private health insurance. So while the legislation would provide government-run health care to 6.1 million children, it would reduce the number of uninsured children by only 4 million.

That’s government efficiency for you: extending health insurance to two children for the price of three!

The Left Doesn't Want You To Understand This

Government-controlled healthcare types have been exultant since the list came out that shows the United States ranked 42nd in life expectancy.

A medical blogger points out how that has nothing to do with our healthcare system.

More importantly, though, is the statistical sleight of hand that proponents of this myth like to pull. That is, citing infant mortality numbers without proper context: in many countries (even "developed" ones), infants with severe or fatal conditions aren't even counted as live births (or are aborted when diagnosed), whereas we do everything we can to save such innocents. One may argue the efficacy of such an attitude, but we value life.
Case closed.

Another left-wing myth bites the dust.

FCDC Explosion

Major Tommy White abruptly quit his job at the Fayette County Detention Center today over the phone.

The FBI investigation into rampant corruption and abuse in the facility is ongoing.

Loving Their Kids Like Drunken Sailors

Congrats to Fayette county homeowners, who get to pay inflated prevailing wages for school construction with their new tax increase.

Of course, it's for the children.

Here's the money quote: “If you’re not for this—then you’re not for public education.”

Uninsured Rate of 14% Sounds About Right

Both gubernatorial candidates are talking about insuring more people in Kentucky by paying at least a portion of of their premium with taxpayer dollars.

The Census Bureau estimates less than 14% of Kentuckians are uninsured, which is slightly less than the national average.

If we bought coverage for another 75,000 people, we would have the highest rate of insured people in the nation.

Live Fat, Die Young, Thanks For Mississippi

Another ranking to be proud of shows Kentucky ranked #7 fattest state in the nation. Can't doubt we would be higher on this one if we weren't also #1 on the smoking chart.

All this should serve to highlight an inconsistency that shouldn't exist in America -- but does -- and will only get worse if we go to European style universal healthcare.

Americans have a great heritage of rugged individualism. It's what motivated fearless pioneers to literally walk from eastern cities to western deserts for the chance to build thriving cities in sand or on mountains.

But we are destroying that heritage. We escalate that destruction every time we put government between an individual and the consequences of his actions.

Americans like to make their own choices. When bad health choices lead inevitably to bad health these days, however, we are forging a new tradition of letting government programs intervene.

Spreading that disconnection into the middle class can only seem like a good idea to someone who is out of touch with the personal qualities that have made America great.

Alberto Gonzales Steps Down

Should President Bush just go ahead and appoint Janet Reno so Hillary Clinton won't have to?

My Babydaddy Made Me Do It

A Lexington Herald-Leader columnist claims, implausibly, that public schools are actually doing a great job if you factor in teenage pregnancies and lead paint.

Then, as if to prove the point that he had no point, the writer shifted from discussing Kentucky to providing all his data from New York.

According to Tom Layzell, the retiring president of the (Kentucky) state Council on Postsecondary education, "Too many students fail to graduate from high school, and of those who do, too many go to college unprepared. Too many college students fail to graduate in a timely manner. And too many adults lack a high school diploma."

But by whose standards or what rationale does this criticism of education emanate? While it would be nice if all children were scholars, it is truly amazing that our kids' educational progress is as high as it is.

While Layzell's brand of criticism is rampant, it does not recognize the changed society in which we live. The problem is that critics look at education today through a prism of the past, but today's society is vastly different.

...

New York City records show that although only 50 percent of children graduate from high school in four years, almost 70 percent finally graduate and another 8 percent receive General Education Development certificates.

Paul Attewell and David Lavin, professors of sociology at the City University of New York, found that more than 28 percent of bachelor's degree recipients obtain their diplomas more than six years after entering college and that 70 percent of women attending CUNY had graduated after an even longer period of time.

Excuses and spinning blame won't help us have better schools in Kentucky. The bottom line is Kentucky schools can't reasonably be expected to improve until we implement policies to better measure student achievement and better monitor resource allocation. SB 130 was a good step. Next year's HB 15 would be another.

Obamanation: Rock Star Screws Kentuckians

Barack Obama turned voters away at the door in Lexington yesterday.

He kept their money, of course. Probably a good preview of how his universal healthcare plan will work.

Movie Nazi: No Free Lunch For You!

Liberal College Professor Gets Thwacked By NY Times For Calling GOP Voters Stupid

You can read the whole thing here, but here is a good excerpt:

Westen urges Democratic candidates to go for the gut, and includes a number of speeches that he wishes Democratic candidates had given. He wishes, for example, Al Gore had hit George Bush harder for being a drunk. He wishes Gore had interrupted a presidential debate and barked at Bush, “If someone is going to restore dignity to the Oval Office, it isn’t a man who drank his way through three decades of his life and got investigated by his father’s own Securities and Exchange Commission for swindling people out of their retirement savings.”

At another point, he imagines Gore exploding: “Why don’t you tell us how many times you got behind the wheel of a car with a few drinks under your belt, endangering your neighbors’ kids? Where I come from, we call that a drunk.” If Democrats would go for people’s primitive passions in this way, Westen argues, they’d win elections.

This thesis raises some interesting questions. First, why did someone with so little faith in rational inquiry go into academia, and what does he do to those who disagree with him at Emory faculty meetings, especially recovering alcoholics?

National Porn Filter May Be Available Cheap

Australia inexplicably spent $84 million on a porn filter for its internet service. One tiny problem, though. A sixteen year old kid cracked the filter in about half an hour.

Can't help wondering if they borrowed the $84 million on twenty or thirty year bonds.

The Winds Of Change

My first thought when the Congressional Amnesty Bill for illegal aliens was defeated was that the aftermath would lead to real welfare reform.

It is starting already in Virginia. This will spread like wildfire.

Resolutions to deny a potentially wide range of public services to illegal immigrants have thrust two northern Virginia counties into the nation's immigration debate. The measures passed in July in Prince William and Loudoun counties join a flurry of recent efforts by local governments nationwide that believe the federal government has not done enough to stop illegal immigration.

Once we see how shutting off the welfare spigot cleans up our immigrant population, it won't be difficult to realize that it will have a similar effect on the natives. Fewer "crazy checks" for capable people will have a dramatic impact on our nation.

Borrow And Spend

The General Assembly yesterday authorized immediately borrowing $100 million for alternative fuels, introduced a pre-filed bill to set up local authorities to borrow money off the state's books for roads and bridges, and on Tuesday the public pension Blue Ribbon Commission will hear testimony about borrowing hundreds of millions more to bail out the state employee benefit plans.

Thank your grandchildren.

I Can't Get No Small Business Tax Breaks

A bipartisan collection of 21 House members today pre-filed a bill that can best be described as the "We still won't cut business taxes across the board so, here, apply for this unfunded small business tax credit and let's see what happens Act of 2008."

New Jersey Has Casinos And Crushing Debt

New Jersey isn't taking time off from buying votes with taxpayer money to consider the long-term costs. Why should we?

Like a cash-strapped shopaholic reaching for a credit card before payday, New Jersey is planning to borrow $2 billion to cover expenses over the next few months – including those record-high property tax rebates.

But given the state's financial situation, some wonder if it's a wise move.


The state already owes an estimated $29.7 billion to creditors. Debt service alone is costing taxpayers upward of $2.5 billion a year. And employee pension funds are at least $25 billion behind where they should be to cover projected future costs.

Overall, money is so tight that Governor Corzine is looking at selling or leasing state assets, such as toll roads and the lottery, to raise revenues.

Like many states at the beginning of a fiscal year, New Jersey is short on cash to pay its bills. But New Jersey has a $2.2 billion expense coming up this year that is unusual: property tax rebate checks.

By the numbers
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Total debt: $29.7 billion

Annual debt costs: $2.5 billion

Expected short-term loan: $2 billion

Cost of tax rebates: $2.2 billion

The checks – which average $1,200 for most homeowners – are timed to be in mailboxes this fall before the upcoming legislative elections.

Illinois Says "Thanks For Playing!"

One element of the Peabody Coal giveaway no one is talking about in Kentucky right now is the fact that as soon as we pass our incentive package we will likely be outbid by Illinois.

The most interesting part of that development will be the role extreme lefty U.S. Senator Barack Obama plays in putting the deal together.

Nominating A Republican In 2008

Since the presidential nomination process belongs to people who are registered as Republicans, I say we drop Sen. John McCain from all future debates and replace him with John Cox.

McCain is just sucking up valuable oxygen in the race right now and should move out to make room for someone who is better on the issues.