Who are the 46 Million and is the number real? Not sure about the “real” question but I can tell you who are some of the 46 million. But first let me say this. Three years ago I was in the working elite that had coverage. Then I lost my job. A WHOLE new world opened up for me. One in which people can’t afford health care and can’t find doctors willing to take Medicare because its a pain.

The 46 million include people who have reached their maximum allowable by health insurance companies and can’t get affordable insurance. These are people in need of chronic care solutions such as diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS.
They are the working poor – mostly women and children who are still locked into roles not highly valued by society. If they want insurance they must pay high premiums $400 – $500 a month. They are the unemployed and homeless – many with children and can’t afford the average 8 – 12K a year for insurance.
They are the people who have chronic illnesses that are excluded but they still have to pay for care. And let’s not talk about prescription drugs!
They are your silent neighbors. Too ashamed or feel it just ain’t your business to know they can’t afford health care. You know it just never seems to come up in polite conversation.
My story… I am one of the uninsured. Just can’t afford 12K a year because I am small business owner and we just get screwed. We don’t have a way of getting good rates. We pay rack rates all the time.

It’s my daughter who has a child and has to wait for a medicare doctor to open up and take a new patient. It’s my other child who’s disabilities are excluded from a plan and will be denied services if anything – such as she didn’t hear a forklift coming and it ran over her foot because she deaf and her deafness was deemed a contributing factor and therefore services for her foot were excluded.

I so enjoy talking to the elite (of which I was one) who sees the world through their own limited vision. The elite who make wonderful pronouncements and judgments based on since it doesn’t happen to them then it can’t be true.

Is the number 46 million? Probably not. It’s probably higher because people like me don’t even bother to discuss it so we don’t get counted. Oh and I am an American born and bred here. My friends in this situation are all Americans born and bred here. And yes we are exercising our right not to have health insurance because it just too expensive to have that wonderful right. And the right to a safe place to live and food on our table is talking priority right now.