Slippery Statistics
October 8th, 2007 by Peter SudermanKent already pointed out some goofy language in Hillary Clinton’s health-care plan, but some of it is downright misleading. Let’s all flip to page 7 of our PDFs and follow along:
The average family premium for employer-based coverage (including employer and employee contributions) is over $12,000. For half of Americans, this total premium accounts for at least one-fourth of their annual income.
Sure sounds bad, doesn’t it? At first read, it seems as if there are any number of families out there shelling out $12,000 a year for their premiums, and with our national median income at about $48,000 a year, that’s a pretty significant chunk of change. Problem is, most of those families are contributing very little to their total premium. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, most individuals with employer-sponsored health care pay only about 16% of the total premium (families pay about 28%). In other words, instead of spending $12,000, or 25% of their total yearly income, they’re paying about $2040, or just over 4% of a $48k median income. Doesn’t sound quite so terrible now, does it?
October 16th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Using Kaiser as an example is just ridiculous.
Anyone who has ever been in that plan can tell you why I wouldn’t believe anything they say.
We make it very complicated.
Why not just offer all LEGAL CITIZENS the same exact medical and health insurance of that which is given to our representatives, with a cost that is is the same percent?
There is no excuse for adequate health care services to be limited to only the rich or elite.
Besides, the quotes entered here (statistics) aren’t even real. Premiums go up every year, more people and treatments are excluded from coverage every year while all taxes go up on everything. There seems to be little concern for this tragedy. If there were more good jobs in America, perhaps people could afford health insurance.
Perhaps the Government should concentrate on dictating what Insurance companies can and cannot do, rather than making critical judgements about where people spend their hard earned income. Leaving everything to the private sector just does not work.