According to airtight research reported by Reuters, there’s probably not enough handicapped spots at your local grocery store:

As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have health problems that could hurt their ability to obtain health insurance or force them to pay higher premiums, a U.S. government study said on Tuesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services released the study as the House of Representatives prepared to take up a Republican bill to repeal the healthcare overhaul that was one of President Barack Obama’s biggest legislative achievements in 2010.

According to the U.S. Census, there’s around 307 million Americans. 12% of those are 65 or older. That means there are approximately 270 million people under the age of 65.

129 million of the 270 million have “health problems”. That would be 47% of Americans under 65 or nearly half of all Americans under the age of 65 have a health problem that would preclude them from getting health insurance.

Cross-posted at LibertyPundits

First, this makes me think that way too many Americans have problems. Of course, in our overweening, narcissistic culture, every bout of sadness is depression and every stomach ache is GERD and every in-grown toenail is a “condition”.

Second, I question the timing. Why, it’s amazing! Just as the Congress debates repealing the health care reform law, the apolitical Health and Human Services comes up with some very convenient “research” that will scare all Americans to death panels!

Third, it’s absurd. Patently, stupidly, absurd. Right now, many people aren’t buying insurance not because they wouldn’t qualify, but because they can’t afford it. They can’t afford it because they don’t have jobs. Jobs are not coming back quickly because, well, legislation like Obamacare is making employers nervous about hiring more workers.

See how that works? The statist’s solution, then, is to force the working taxpayers to pay for insurance for everyone who is not working. That’s called increased taxes. Increased taxes create less disposable income to buy stuff which is made by employees who have insurance until they’re fired because no one is buying the stuff.

America currently stares this vicious cycle in the face. The Democrats are hoping Republicans blink. They’ll put out this sort of craptastic research and attempt to scare Americans into a fear-spiral.

Not only will Americans not have jobs, they’ll have no hope of getting health insurance again, ever!

This little piece of research intended to provoke fear among people who are already afraid because of current and horrible Democrat policies. It should be ignored.

UPDATE: A complete takedown of the bogus research here.