"Almost nine out of 10 people in this country have some kind of health insurance coverage," said Robert Harris, who oversees Regence's market research.

Too bad Mr. Harris is afraid to state the real numbers and percentages.

The U.S Census Bureau's Web page gives the most recent total population numbers (from 2007) as 301 million people. If 48 million of us are uninsured then the statement that "almost nine out of 10 ... have some kind of health insurance coverage" is not only deceptive on its face, but serves only to highlight Regence's straw man argument - that the real problem facing Americans isn't lack of access to healthcare, it's that insurance consumers just don't understand their policies. Reality: 48 million = 16 percent of Americans with no insurance at all. Of the remaining 84 percent millions of those are under insured.

With insurance conglomerates in control of deciding who among us is fit to receive health care, who is fit to live or die, and lying about how many are uninsured in this country, health care will never be considered a human right but merely a privilege for those who can still afford to buy it.

Mickey Horwitz

Seattle