LETTER

To the editors:

The Dec. 14th opinion piece “Make Like a Democrat,” cites a figure of 47 million uninsured Americans. This oft-quoted statistic is actually a gross overestimation of the problem—recent research suggests that the number of Americans who cannot currently afford health insurance is much lower.

A new study by Dr. June O’Neill, who served as Director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1995-1999, shows that nearly half of those uninsured Americans could likely afford to purchase health coverage. The average “voluntarily uninsured” household makes $65,000 per year.

We should not rush into the creation of a new, expensive healthcare system without a better understanding of the uninsured population. As long as we continue basing our arguments on inaccurate numbers, it’s hard to see how we can make effective policy decisions.

Kristen L. Eastlick is a Senior Economic Analyst at the Employment Policies Institute in Washington, D.C.