Last week, White House press secretary Jay Carney
admitted that Obamacare would force around 15 million people - 5% of the US population - to drop their current insurance. This number doesn't seem like a big deal to him, however:
“That’s the universe we’re talking about, 5 percent of the population,” Carney described. “In some of the coverage of this issue in the last several days, you would think that you were talking about 75 percent or 80 percent or 60 percent of the American population.”
That number is close to some
other estimates for the individual market, but does not include people whose employers drop coverage, multiplying that number
several fold.
But how many people is 15 million? Is it really such a small number, something we shouldn't care about?
Let's put it in perspective, and visualize 15 million people:
1. The combined population of 13 states
Yes, you read that correctly. 15 million is approximately the
number of total people living in Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho, and West Virginia
combined.
And more than all of the New England states!