Bidencare falls short.

We’re flying back to Chicago this morning and our masks are back on after our annual week on Block Island.

Goodbye to local lobster, sandy beaches, old friends, rock ‘n roll bingo at Club Soda (the local dive bar) and, most importantly, family - at least for the time being.

Sitting at JFK, waiting for our flight to ORD, we are well aware of the reports that Covid numbers and hospitalizations are increasing. Having just had my second case last June while visiting Los Angeles, I have no interest in getting it again.

In fact, over the next few weeks I am planning to get my flu shot, the new Covid vaccine and the RSV injection.

I am the embodiment of the anti-anti-vaxxer.

I am even using what they call OBI for my Crohn’s Skyrizi shot. OBI stands for On Body Injection, meaning I do it myself at home instead of at an infusion center by a medical professional.

The irony is that according to my Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, the infusion at at medical facility is covered, but to do it myself requires a hundred dollar co-pay every two months.

Don’t try to understand this. Just chalk it up to a minor example of what is the worst health care system in the world.

According to David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick in this morning’s New York Times, Joe Biden is planning to run on his healthcare accomplishments.

Biden is emphasizing the cost of health care partly because it has been one of his administration’s biggest priorities, even if other policies — such as those on the climate and infrastructure — receive more attention. His administration has reduced the cost of hearing aids, reduced the cost of health insurance for people who buy it though an Obamacare exchange and reduced an array of expenses for Medicare recipients.

I’m no campaign consultant, but I’m not sure the American people are feeling positive about Bidencare anymore than they are feeling good about Bidenomics.

Not that the Republicans, who have spent the last decade trying to kill the Affordable Care Act, will do any better.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in 2023, 248 million people in the US who are younger than age sixty-five have some form of health insurance coverage (mostly through employment-based plans), and twenty-three million people, or 8.3 percent of that age group, are uninsured.

There are significant variations in coverage by income, race and ethnicity.

The problem is that the unprecedented low uninsurance rate is largely attributable to temporary policies that kept beneficiaries enrolled in Medicaid and enhanced the subsidies available through the health insurance Marketplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Biden declared the Covid pandemic over in May an estimated 9.3 million people moved to other forms of coverage, and 6.2 million became uninsured.

When the temporary subsidies expire after 2025, 4.9 million fewer people are estimated to enroll in Marketplace coverage, instead enrolling in unsubsidized nongroup or employment-based coverage.

Or become uninsured.

By 2033 the uninsured is projected to be 10.1 percent of those under 65.