Are You Getting Good Information?

If you get most of your news from radio, TV or newspapers, you rely on them as "gatekeepers"...they decide what stories you hear and what stories you won't hear.

Interestingly, a liberal advocacy group called Families USA recently marketed stories on people who lack health insurance....and over 200 media headlines were the result. As a result, we hear over and over about uninsured people and the need for health care reform.

The other day I heard 6-7 headlines on the radio news about people who had been shot in various states...by piling them on one after another, it made it sound like a huge outbreak of violence in this country. I wondered if this was part of a push for greater gun control. In a nation of 300 million people, there are bound to be some problems. When you gather incidents across all states and report them one after another, the perception is that the problem is a big one.

Back to health care....while there are issues with our health care system, it is interesting to look at facts. For example, it is widely reported that 47 million (out of some 300+ million) Americans lack health insurance. According to the Census Bureau, of these 47 million:

• 9.5 million people are illegal aliens
• 8.3 million uninsured people are those who make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year and choose not to purchase insurance
• 8.7 million uninsured people are those who make over $75,000 a year and choose not to purchase insurance

So less than 7% of the population wants insurance and does not have it. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 45% of those without insurance will have insurance within 4 months. Again, something that we may want to address, but hardly the widespread phenomenon that we are told about.