Sunday, September 27, 2009

The "poster child about the need for healthcare reform"?

The Miami Herald found the "crisis" they were looking for:

"As the nation's leaders debate the merits of healthcare reform, what's happening in Hialeah and Weston forms a stark tale of two cities at the opposite ends of the spectrum. More than half of Hialeah adults aged 18-64 -- 53.1 percent -- lack health insurance, according to Census data released last week. That's almost three times the national average and the highest rate in South Florida. The lowest -- 13.8 percent -- is in Weston. That disparity "could certainly be a poster child about the need for reform," says Robert Berenson, a physician who is a health policy expert at the Urban Institute."

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1254023.html

Of course, this conclusion ignores a few so-called 'inconvenient truths' - - "Ninety-six percent [of Hialeah residents] are Hispanic. Almost three-fourths were born in a foreign country (70 percent of those are Cuban), and one in four of the foreign-borns arrived in the United States since 2000. . . . The Hispanic factor is important because national Census data shows Hispanics generally are far more likely to lack health coverage . . . because Hispanics tend to be . . . recent arrivals to the United States, meaning they don't qualify for government insurance . . ."

Get that? We're told we need health insurance reform become "recent arrivals to the United States" lack health insurance. But, if you say the various Congressional health insurance reform proposals will cover "recent arrivals to the United States", whether legal or illegal, you're a liar spreading untruths and 'fishy stories'.

If the reform plans won't cover illegal immigrants, why are the healthcare needs of illegal immigrants cited as a justification for those plans?

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