The Federal Government insures over half of Americans

155 million Americans are insured directly or indirectly by the federal government, according to an article by Robert B. Doherty in the July/August edition of ACP Internist. The breakdown is as follows, ranked by number of insureds:

• Medicaid--62 million
• Medicare--49.5 million
• Tricare (Dept. of Defense)--10 million
• Veterans Administration--8.9 million
• Federal Employees Health Benefit Program--8.2 million
• Children's Health Insurance Program--8.1 million
• Affordable Care Act (mostly subsidized)--8 million+

This is remarkable in two regards.

First, as the battle rages over national health insurance and the single payer model we should be mindful that we are already essentially halfway there, although in a very balkanized fashion.

Second, Obamacare, the source of so much discord, is a relative drop in the bucket, accounting for just 5% of the federal healthcare footprint.