Davis: Talking About The Costs of The Uninsured as Bad as Racism and Hairism

Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) says you're a bad person if you think the uninsured contribute to higher health care costs for individuals and families with insurance.  From her weekly newsletter, as posted by The Turner Report:

Blaming the uninsured for driving up the cost of healthcare is just as prejudiced as blaming any other group of people merely by social, economic affiliation skin color [sic] or hair styles. Those with no insurance who pay their bills in a timely manner are likely to pay their medical bills in a timelier manner than the insurance companies. Our enemy is not the uninsured. Our problems are created by artificially inflated prices, minimal disclosure and a lack of incentive to shop for the most affordable medical care.

I'm not sure who is describing uninsured individuals as "the enemy," but it's a well-established fact that businesses, families and individuals paying for health care insurance now are paying more because there are so many uninsured Americans.  Families USA, for example, estimates that the average U.S. family and their employers paid an extra $1,017 in health care premiums in 2008 to compensate for the uninsured. And the Kaiser Family Foundation describes the costs of the uninsured in terms of lost productivity, to taxpayers, etc. as "enormous." 

To talk about the causes and consequences of our existing health care system and related policies is not racist, or classist, or hairist. It's just coming to terms with the fact that taxpayers and people fortunate enough to have regular health insurance are paying more because so many lack basic coverage.