According to Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at The Cato Institute, approximately 163 million people receive health insurance through their employer. If this third-party arrangement was terminated, and this group added to the present 148 million privately insured (Consumer Population Survey), there would be a level playing field of 311 million people, not including the numerous small businesses. If a nationwide set of uniform rules and regulations were adopted, replacing the patchwork of existing state health insurance requirements, then an enormous market would be open to the private health insurance companies. A potential market of 311 million insureds could be expected to drive down the cost of health insurance, improve affordability, offer portability and provide among other benefits an industry risk pool with which to insure those with pre-existing conditions, an ObamaCare objective.
And at no cost to the taxpayers.
Those still uninsured, roughly 4% of the 311 million population or 10-15 million people, will continue to receive benefits from the "Safety Net" including government, private charitable groups, doctors and hospitals who "generally distribute resources to lower income people." ("Who are the Uninsured?" Baruch College, June 2009).
Yet liberals pay no heed to market-based health insurance solutions. Instead, they are insistent on wielding the power of government to underwrite an unneeded $900 billion dollar entitlement mandating health insurance for everyone, undermining the private health insurance industry and mistakenly assuming that there are 47 million uninsured Americans, 16% of the population, the cornerstone of ObamaCare.
What should be understood is that this anti-growth, statist solution is merely a stepping stone on the way to a single-payer system. As the humorist, P.J. O'Rourke said, "If you think that health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free.