Which of the following families is "richer"?

Much to our surprise, the Census Bureau reported yesterday that the number of people in the U.S. with health insurance actually increased by 3.6 million last year. That's the good news. The bad news is that nearly three million of them got their coverage through government programs.

The slide toward a government-dominated, taxpayer-supported health sector will continue unless the 45.7 million Americans who don't have insurance now are given more opportunities to buy private coverage.

Indiana has benefited from toll road lease and could gain from Gov. Daniels' lottery plan

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' has proposed leasing the Hoosier Lottery to fund college scholarships and various education programs. His opponent this November, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson, recently announced that if elected, she would revisit and possibly reverse some of Daniels' privatization initiatives, including the $3.8 billion lease of the Indiana Toll Road (ITR) in 2006.

Medicaid, the joint federal/state program that was created to provide health care for the poor, is growing at an unsustainable rate and threatens both state and federal budgets. In 2000, Medicaid represented 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is projected to rise to 9% by 2075. This, combined with unfunded liabilities in Social Security and Medicare, will require a devastating doubling of federal taxes and enormous increases in state funding. In 1980, Medicaid represented around 12% of Pennsylvania’s state budget. As of 2007, that total had increased to almost 26%.