How many Americans lack health insurance? According to the National Health Insurance Survey (NHIS) of the Centers for Disease Control, its 13.1% of the population in Q1 2014, down from 14.4% in Q1 2013. The NHIS says 3.8 million more Americans were insured in the first quarter of this year. According to the Current Population Survey (CPS) of the Census Bureau, its 13.8% of the population in Q1 2014, up from 13.4% in Q1 2013. The CPS says 1.3 million fewer Americans were insured in the first quarter of this year. Loath as I am to predict the future, I boldly predict that many Obamacare partisans on either side will find themselves possessed of violent opinions about the sampling techniques of two surveys of whose existence, only last week, they were at most dimly aware. The lesson, of course, lies in the discrepancy. Two government agencies, neither with a political axe to grind, differ not merely on the magnitude of the change but on its very direction. Statistics are not facts. Do not reify abstractions.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 23:05:53 +0000
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