A Look at Hillary’s Health-Care Numbers

This will spark controversy.

clipped from www.google.com Hillary Rodham Clinton revealed her health-care plan today, promising that her plan “covers every American — finally addressing the needs of the 47 million uninsured.” That 47 million estimate is derived from a Census Bureau report for 2006 which was released late last month and widely reported, including in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and is likely to provide fuel for Ms. Clinton and her presidential rivals as they debate their plans for expanding health-insurance coverage. But there are caveats about that number. For one thing, despite newspaper pieces describing the Census report as counting “47 million Americans” without health insurance, the count includes 10.2 million noncitizens. Also, other reports suggest that only a subset of the total — perhaps as few as half — lacked health insurance for the entire year; the rest were covered for at least part of it.