Health insurance: still more foolin' with the numbers

This might not be the most rip-roaring topic to those of us who look for headlines involving
A: people getting shot before they can blow things up, or
B: Things getting blown up before they can shoot people
C: just plain ol' things getting blown up.

But health insurance is a crucial issue, both to the Hillary Clinton campaign juggernaut and to people who have been shot while trying to blow something up, but haven't been shot enough to bring on a Life Insurance Crisis.

There are a lot of people throwing around enormous numbers out there about the magnitude of the health insurance crisis. We've done a couple of posts on that, mostly Geoff actually, and I think it's important that when you hear these mind-boggling numbers you regard them with the same degree of suspicion as you do when you hear someone throw out dire predictions about global warming.

Global warming, apparently, exists. It may or may not be a problem with a potential political solution. It may or may not be worth worrying about. But all the numbers and models invite gimlet-eyed scrutiny. Vodka gimlet, please, though is there such a thing as a gin gimlet? That sounds better.

Anyway, also worthy of scrutiny are the numbers about "the uninsured" (who are shaping up to be the new homeless in this election). Professor HG Stern of the Insureblog has a couple more insights into how these numbers are being whipped up like a chocolate mousse.

Skim here and here, and remember this when you are discussing this issue, and remember: even if you do think every person in America is entitled to health care coverage provided by the government, the solution to a problem that concerns "less than seven percent of the population" is far less radical than one that concerns... [start--accessories--calculator--FLARG! forty five million is what percentage of three hundred million--wait, the three hundred is divided by the---no, it's forty five divided by GOLDANGIT I ALREADY TOOK THE SAT! WHAT IS THIS CRAP?]

[cooling sip of improvised gin gimlet]

...fifteen percent of Americans.

(Footnote: the wikipedia entry, citing the WSJ's authoritative cocktail columnist Eric Felten, asserts that the gimlet was originally a gin drink and the vodka derivative came along later. That makes sense. It's like martinis, which I don't order out much but when I do I always forget to say "gin" and they bring me a vodka martini, which has somehow become the default among a hip crowd I do not pretend to travel in. Punks. Who gave you the right to change what goes into a martini? Or even a gimlet? Next thing I know I'm going to order a bourbon and get vodka because of you potato-juice neutral-spirit-loving flibertigibbets.)