One slide explaining health reform in North Carolina

We hear from opponents of health reform that it is a revolutionary government takeover, that it will upend the way we buy insurance, that our freedoms are evaporating. Below is a slide assembled by the NC Department of Insurance from an actuarial report on sources of insurance coverage in the state before and after health reform for those younger than 65. Not quite the restructuring of our economy that some are decrying.

You can see that the uninsured rate is cut by a little more than half. Some of those folks will get Medicaid. Other uninsured residents will purchase individual coverage now because they are no longer excluded from the market due to a preexisting condition. And that’s about it. Large group coverage will expand a bit; small group coverage remains about the same; other sources of insurance such as TRICARE are unaffected. Click on the image to see a larger version.