Dan Gelber, Democratic candidate for Florida Attorney General, did some fun math recently on his blog, making the case for a federal public health insurance option:
There is a lot of debate about the federal health care plan that is taking shape in the Congress. Many folks who recoil from a “public option” (like Medicare) suggest we can simply rely on the market to take care of our uninsured. I think it only fair that we respond with the facts as they are presented in our own state of Florida. Presently, Florida has 3.8 million of its residents without health insurance, including 800,000 children. Only one state has a higher rate of uninsured. On January 5, 2009, the Governor and the Legislature rolled out the “Cover Florida” plan which was intended to address this crisis by soliciting private health care plans that would cover less benefits and, therefore, because they were cheaper to buy, cover more people. So assuming we stick with the current “market-based” system and refuse to adopt the plans that are being considered in Washington, when can Floridians expect health care for our citizens?
Here is the analysis. After 146 days, 3,226 Floridians have enrolled in the Cover Florida plan (about 22 per day). Although math was never my specialty, one of my FCAT trained friends quickly calculated that at the current rate of enrollment it will take only 172,727.27 days or 473 years for Cover Florida to enroll the remainder of Florida’s uninsured.
For those of you who want to begin preparing for the health care coverage party that the legislature will sponsor when Florida’s current plan reaches 100% coverage, that date would be…..Monday, April 27th 2482.
Is it possible to set up a "Florida Universal Health Care Victory Celebration" on Meetup.com for the year 2482? Anyone know? That would be a hot party.
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