It is worse than you think….here's why:
As stated previously, the magical # that everyone - politicians, media, etc. use for the so-called "uninsured" is 40mn or 47mn what no one will talk about - except the US Census, is that many of the uninsured are not even Americans(1) . The way the media and politicians speak about this subject is coded. They say "40mn people in this country don't have health insurance" .The reason is that neither McCain or Obama want to have to discuss providing health insurance to millions of illegal aliens. Now should the society decide to make the expenditure -that will surely incentivize non-Americans to come here, to provide healthcare for every person in this country -, well that would be a different question and the media and politicians should speak truthfully about it. We already do cover emergency healthcare -just ask the hospital in California and Texas how much it costs them to cover illegal aliens. A debate worth having….but a different debate than "universal healthcare" in today's context.

From US Census:….
Uninsured who are NOT U.S. CITIZENS IS 45% of the 47 million.

Broken down by age, 18 - 24 years old - 29.3% of the 47 million.

25 - 35 years old - 26.9% of the 47 million.

Broken down by salary, $75,000 or more per year - 8.5% of the 47 million

IF mandatory health care is required for everyone in the USA -legally or otherwise, than that is a big incentive for people from, for example, Mexico where the health care system isn't as advanced, to come into the country. Therefore what how much higher than 15mn figure goes…and thus the cost of healthcare in the US.

Of the remaining 25mn or 31mn depending on one's #, a good portion are single men between the ages of 18 and 29 who have under their own analysis based on cost/benefit decided that paying a $1k p/month for health insurance is not worth it.

All children(2), by the way, that don't have parental coverage, are covered by Medicaid. There is also State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), so anyone trying to say we need insurance for children is misrepresenting the truth.


(1) http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf
American Enterprise Institute
(2) http://www.cbpp.org/mcaidprt.htm