Saturday, September 12, 2009

Americans without healthcare lower than three years ago ...

... but the poverty rate inched up from 12.5 percent in 2006 to 13.2 percent in 2007.
The Census Bureau reported this week that 46.3 million people were without health insurance in 2008 ... depending on how you look at that number, it could be both good or bad news. In 2006, there were 47 million people without insurance. That number dropped to 45.7 million in 2007. But then, it rose back up again to the 46.3 million.
So, not unlike the Clinton years, when eight million more people lost their insurance between 1993 and 1999 then when Bush 41 was in office, when Democrats took over Congress, 700,000 people lost insurance.
Or, you could look at it this way: During W's last year, with a Democratically-controlled Congress, hundreds of thousands of people lost health insurance.
Or, you could look at it this way too: During W's last two years, 700,000 more people were enrolled in insurance programs than before 2006.
So, you can make the numbers look both positive and negative, depending on how you frame the numbers.

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