The Deadly Consequences of Delaying Health Reform

[Guest guest]

No health coverage leads to premature deaths, study says

Without health insurance reform, 2,000 Kansans without coverage would die

over the next decade, according to a nonpartisan health care advocacy group.

They would be among an estimated 275,000 people across the country between

ages 25 and 64 and who have no insurance who would also die if Congress does

nothing, according to an ongoing study by Families USA.

The study, Lives on the Line: The Deadly Consequences of Delaying Health

Reform, reported last month that 5,200 uninsured people in Missouri in the same

age bracket would die if health care reform fails.

" When the people of this nation witness a tragic event that leads to

multiple deaths, we raise our voices in indignation, and the nation rallies in

response, " Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack said in a conference

call. " Yet, unseen, hundreds of thousands will die needlessly and prematurely

over the next decade because our terribly flawed health care system excludes

these ordinary Americans. "

President Obama last week signaled a renewed effort to pass reform this

spring. He again reached out for Republican support, but vowed to try to pass a

bill however possible.

Democrats in the House are engaged in intense negotiations to try and paper over

differences inside their caucus so they can line up behind a bill.

Families USA said that its calculations about deaths among the uninsured are

based on a formula used by the Institute of Medicine, the health division of the

National Academy of Sciences, in its own 2002 study.

The institute found that 18,000 adults between 25 and 64 had died in 2000

because they had no health coverage.

The Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, later conducted a similar

study and estimated that 22,000 uninsured adults died in 2006 for the same

reason.

Families USA also estimated the number of deaths among the uninsured

nationally and state-by-state since 1995, when health care reform was last

attempted during the Clinton administration.

It estimated that deaths across the country totaled 295,000, including 1,900

in Kansas and 5,000 in Missouri.

Families USA said that the uninsured usually have no recourse for care but

hospital emergency rooms, rarely get screenings or preventive care, and delay or

go without care altogether.

The group said also said that the uninsured are usually sicker and die

earlier.

" A national tragedy is taking place every month due to the lack of health

care coverage, " said Dr. Vivek Murthy, a Boston internist who teaches at Harvard

Medical School, who spoke on the conference call.

Murthy is also president of Doctors for America, which supports health care

reform.

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http://wvgazette.com/News/201003050963