Illegals don't need health insurance. They can get free medical care at any ER.

We should remove them from the equation.

YES! Who helps pay for the medical costs of the unfortunate in your respective Ward? YOU DO, if you pay fast offerings. I'm sorry, but you cannot dissect this issue in the hopes that you can support comfortable rationalizations!

"As of 2006, 15% of Americans (43.6 million) without any health insurance"

I agree -it is a major part of the problem.

I would argue that healthcare reform is a political/economic issue rather than a moral one. If we were letting people die in the streets, that's a moral issue. Despite what some would have you believe, this isn't happening--or at least, we're doing our best to prevent it. Medicaid is the best emergency care insurance in the world.

LINK! Do a search on this site in the political forum -you will find lot's of posts by many people and many links to many stats.

There have been links to stories in this ongoing discussion that proves people literally are being left to die because a lack of coverage.

Ask Mike for the links. It is first and foremost a moral issue.

Not actually ... actually look into it beyond the article ... what you might find will surprise you. What you are espousing is an excuse -you have your head in the sand.

ON my most recent plane flight I sat next to an ER dcotor for the Kaiser system. As I am a lawyer, we almost inevitbaly ended up discussing malpractice suits and their implications. Ay one point he asked me if I knew the biggest cause of malpractice suits. I rolled my eyes and said something like "greedy lawyers?" He said "Nope. Malpractice."

He was a very nice guy, actually, and his biggest gripe was not the outcome of these types of suits, but the unpredictability of the result.

Yeah, that would be wrong. Medicaid patients in this country have far better access to advanced technology in the emergency room than in any other country. Furthermore, it's illegal for an emergency room to deny care based on inability to pay. But it DOES make a good story.

Now if you're making an argument that their lack of preventive care is causing unneeded deaths, you may have a case. But the uncontrolled diabetic who eventually has an MI and dies isn't quite so newsworthy or exciting, although this is likely a much larger contributor to mortality.

Why do they lack preventative care? Well, that's a little trickier than just lack of insurance. The poor actually have access to Medicaid, but many are amazingly unwilling to make a phone call or visit the office to fill out the paperwork. Most primary care doctors take Medicaid, and most essential medicines are paid for by Medicaid. I guess we could fill out their paperwork for them too. On second thought, social workers often already do this. Maybe we need to wipe their butt...

Healthcare reform would do more for the lower-middle class than the lower classes.

I suspect he said that because he was talking to a lawyer and didn't want an awkward plane ride.

In reality, it's a combination of factors. Do you really think doctors in Louisiana are far worse than the doctors in Texas?