Confused about all this health care talk, especially the rhetoric being spread by those opposing real reform? Check out this helpful guide to deciphering Eleven Health Care Reform Myths by The Wonk Room and CAPAF:
MYTH: Being uninsured is not a problem; it’s people’s own fault. During an interview with the independent student newspaper of Tufts University, former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) downplayed the number of Americans without health insurance. “However, 11 million of that total are illegal immigrants. Ten million more are people who can buy their own insurance. Finally, another 10 million are people your own age who think they are never going to get sick or hurt and are not vulnerable,” Dole argued. [Tufts Daily,12/04/2008]
REALITY: Americans are uninsured because they can’t afford the high costs of insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), most Americans who lack health insurance “come from working families and have low incomes.” About two-thirds of the uninsured “are poor or near poor” and are “less likely to be offered employer-sponsored coverage or to be able to afford to purchase their own coverage.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 10/15/2008]