As we hear more about how 50% of bankruptcies are caused by a medical crisis, Universal Healthcare has emerged as an issue that is related to the bankruptcy one. There is a lot of misinformation out on this. They say 45 million Americans can't get health insurance.  Here are some facts Exposed by John Stossel of ABC News:

• 37% of the un-insured live in households earning more than $50,000 a year (and 19% live in households earning more than $75,000). Can people at these income levels afford major medical insurance? Yes. Should they be subsidized by you and me? No. Subtract this group and the number of uninsured people drops to roughly 28 million.

• 20% of the un-insured are non-citizens. Should you and I pay to insure them through a top-down federal monopoly? We think not. Subtract this group and the number of un-insured people drops to roughly 19 million.

• 33% of the un-insured are already eligible for existing government programs. No new program is needed for people who are already covered by current programs. Subtract them and the number of uninsured people drops to roughly 4 million. This is much more likely to be the true size of the problem.

45 million vs. 4 million -- that's a huge difference!

The congressional budget office estimates that a health insurance deduction could make it possible for 7 million more Americans to buy health insurance. 

The Treasury Department agrees.

Here is what Jim Babka says at Downsize DC:

Congress could wipe out the un-insurance problem in one swoop -- not by creating a new program, not by spending more money, and not by monopolizing American health care, but simply by letting people keep more of their own money to spend on health insurance.

Moreover, as we understand it, the proposed health insurance deduction could be structured to apply to payroll and Medicare taxes too, which are regressive taxes that hurt low income Americans far more than income taxes do.

Best of all, a standard health insurance deduction wouldn't just help those with lower incomes, it would help everyone who has to purchase their own insurance.

Now, what about the number of Americans who die because they have no health insurance? As far as we can tell that number is effectively very small, and almost certainly nothing like the 18,000 deaths that Michael Moore claims in "Sicko." Here's why . . .

Hospitals are legally required to provide treatment, regardless of ability to pay. Most doctors will also provide routine medical care to the indigent, because this is part of the medical ethos.

In fact, these are two of the main ways low-income non-citizens without insurance get treatment, in addition to the already existing programs at the local, state, and, alas, federal level.

This is not to say that some people don't fall through the cracks, because of incompetence, or for other random reasons. They do. Perfection is not an option in this imperfect world. It is simply to say that our current system has no fundamental systemic flaw leading to widespread death such as we see with health care rationing in the socialist systems.

We could simply leave it at this and say case closed. Congress could solve the problem of the un-insured with one simple change. No federal health care monopoly is needed. In fact, we have shown that government health care monopolies in other countries have led to unneeded deaths through rationing and waiting lists.