Medary.com

We're supposed to believe that there are 45 million people in the U.S. who don't have health insurance through no fault of their own. That's the reason why it's a "crisis," right?

Not so fast.

Here are the facts, via the American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute (both reporting data from the Census Bureau:

12 million people without health insurance are eligible for Medicaid and/or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) but haven't enrolled. Whose fault is that? Should you pay for their irresponsibility?

10 million people without health insurance are foreigners in the U.S. 4.4 million of those are here legally, and 5.6 million are here illegally. Should you pay for their irresponsibility?

19.6 million people without health insurance have incomes higher than 250% of the poverty level--$55,125 for a family of four. Should you pay for their poor household budgeting skills?

Is this a real crisis? Is this a panic attack on the part of the Democrats? Or is it a naked power grab to seize control of one sixth of the American economy?

Here's one thing we could do to "fix" health care--from Cato:

The current system excludes the value of employer-provided insurance from a worker's taxable income. However, workers purchasing health insurance on their own must do so with after-tax dollars. This provides a significant tilt toward employer-provided insurance. Workers should receive a standard deduction, a tax credit, or, better still, large Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for the purchase of health insurance, regardless of whether they receive it through their job or purchase it on their own.

We can then look at those people who may need some kind of subsidy to better afford insurance.