“..hard-core uninsured (legal US citizens only), at the time something like 34 million...”
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I question the definition of “hard core” if it rises to the level of 9% of the entire US population.
The poor you will always have with you, right? But I'm not nearly as altruistic as Our Lord; however if there's a paradigm where it's flat-out cheaper to keep them out of the emergency room, I want US to find it.
"When all of these factors are put together, the 2003 BlueCross BlueShield study determined that 8.2 million Americans are actually without coverage for the long haul, because they are too poor to purchase health care but earn too much to qualify for government assistance. Even being without insurance still doesn't mean they won't have access to care, because federal law forbids hospitals from denying treatment to patients who show up at the emergency rooms." - Spectator.org, The Myth of the 46 Million