Harvard researchers published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health a study which reveals roughly 45,000 American adults die every year because they are not covered by health insurance.
Researchers specifically noted that lack of health insurance now kills more adults than kidney disease.
The American Journal of Public Health is a subscription-only service. Physics.org reported:
Lead author Dr. Andrew Wilper, who worked at Harvard Medical School when the study was done and who now teaches at the University of Washington Medical School, said, "The uninsured have a higher risk of death when compared to the privately insured, even after taking into account socioeconomics, health behaviors and baseline health. We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes and heart disease - but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications."
The study, which analyzed data from national surveys carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), assessed death rates after taking education, income and many other factors including smoking, drinking and obesity into account. It estimated that lack of health insurance causes 44,789 excess deaths annually.
Previous estimates from the IOM and others had put that figure near 18,000. The methods used in the current study were similar to those employed by the IOM in 2002, which in turn were based on a pioneering 1993 study of health insurance and mortality.
During a Thursday rally, President Barack Obama promised a University of Maryland crowd, "Because you voted for change in November, we're going to bring change."
The United States was "on the cusp" of fulfilling the promise of easier access to higher education, which is very costly, and of changing the health care system, which Obama said was a defining issue for the current generation.
"One in three adults who don't have health insurance live one accident away from bankruptcy," the president said, his speech regularly interrupted by deafening cheers and at one point by a lone heckler, who shouted "child killer" as Obama began his speech.
The president never broke his stride, and the heckler was quickly ushered out of the stadium by security guards.
The rally was the latest sign that Obama is now hitting back hard at opponents to his proposed reforms who hogged the media spotlight last month by disrupting town hall meetings held to explain and promote the president's vision for change.
It was also a bid by Obama's behind-the-scenes team, whose near flawless handling of his campaign took him from the bottom rungs of the US Senate to the White House, to boost the president's popularity ratings.
Obama's poll numbers have fallen over the past few months as politicians dickered over health care and the public reacted to what it saw as excessive government spending.
"It's time to put our shoulders to the wheel of history," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, acting as a warm-up man for the president, told the exuberant crowd inside the University of Maryland's 20,000-seat basketball stadium before Obama arrived.
"We are closer than ever before to building a health care system that America can be proud of. We cannot let this opportunity slip by," he said as the crowd whooped and cheered.
-- Stephen C. Webster
With AFP
...and the bill collectors get to split their property that is left to pay off the debt. "ain't that america, home of the free....with little pink houses....." And just keep on being racists while you shoot yourself in the foot.
Hahahahahahahaaaaaa...! ! !
I'm a REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN and
I say that YOUR LIFE IS CHEAP! !
hee hee haaaaaaaaaaa....haaaaaaaaaa...
I have health insurance, tough if YOU don't, ya pinko looser!
Communists always want gov't to provide something for them,
something THEY don't need(!!) like health insurance, geez Louise...
BUT ONLY CORPORATIONS DESERVE your gov't taxes to be
shoveled into their pockets while YOU pay for it.
You've been "had" for years, ya commies.
Hahahahahahahaaaaaa...! ! !
I'm a REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN and
I say that YOUR LIFE IS CHEAP! !
hee hee haaaaaaaaaaa....haaaaaaaaaa...
I have health insurance, tough if YOU don't, ya pinko loser!
Communists always want gov't to provide something for them,
something THEY don't need(!!) like health insurance, geez Louise...
BUT ONLY CORPORATIONS DESERVE your gov't taxes to be
shoveled into their pockets while YOU pay for it.
You've been "had" for years, ya commies.
You DON'T say...
Too bad nobody cares in this government.
god, how much more evidence do we need to understand that healthcare IS NOT AN INDUSTRY; its about life and death. We refer to it as if we are talking about textiles. Most importantly, healthcare SHOULD NOT BE RUN as a FOR PROFIT institution!!!!!
The title to this article should be corrected. Nobody dies from lack of insurance. People die from loss of blood, cancer, heart attacks, etc. Not paying money to some corporation every month is not a fatal condition. Please correct.
THe 45,000 per YEAR figure is much more likely PER MONTH.
That's where the Pukes get their "Death Panel" idea from, they're already here...it's the insurance or lack thereof.
They like it this way the fukin masochists.
and as usual the GOP ONLY cares about a FETUS, but once that baby comes out - "You're the whore, or stupid bitch" for having a kid you couldn't afford...its YOUR problem,!
I agree. If you get sick without good insurance, just sign over your remaining wealth to your Insurance company, Its easy
Come on....We have to take care of our Congressmen and Senators with LARGE Bribes .... whoops campaign contributions from Health Care companies. Our Senators are not Billionaires yet, Not like Bill McQuire from United Health Care who recieved $1.6 Billion for his time at the company and others who receive $100,000/yr.... not enough
I know Poor Max Baucus from the Senate Finance Committee is only up $3 million this year.
Lets all go bankrupt for the HealthCare Industry!!!
This is sick.
Ah so now we find out that Sarah of the Republicans is absolutely right about "The Death Panels", just wrong about what or who is responsible for them.
45 thousand does seem low. It depends if you include people that commit suicide because they're broke, or commit crimes to get food, shelter, etc, then wind up dying in prison. There are a lot of ways that a lack of public health care could contribute to an early death, not to mention all the people stuck in wage-slave jobs because they can't afford to lose their crappy company plan.
I wonder how many Americans will die this flu season because they don't have the money for both the seasonal shot and the one for H1N1? Should be an interesting year.
45k per year is only 1/10th of 1% of the 45M that are uninsured (1 out of 1000). It's hard to imagine the insured having a lower rate than that. Seems to me you're more likely to die if you HAVE insurance. Can't think of a better argument to get rid of health insurance.
A study from an Obama supporter. What do you expect?
Max Baucus should be thrown out of office for selling out his country's health for campaign money from pharma and health ins companies. Unbelievable!!!
They don't die from lack of INSURANCE. They die from lack of HEALTH CARE. Let's get the corrupt, predatory leeches from the insurance agency out of the way.
[...] Researchers specifically noted that lack of health insurance now kills more adults than kidney disease. READ MORE… [...]
Europeans don't think Americans are stupid but to watch people dying due to a lack of health insurance in one of the most richest economy's in the world just seems quit absurd,something has to change in the profit above morals mentality which is obviously the rule ,the major problem is health insurance is one of the most successful money making businesses in American history i think it will be definitely be hard to reform as such profit is involved. It has to change and the only people who can change it are the American people who have to come together and stop believing the hype that purposely distracts them.
Is this was the same story and source i posted on DU yesterday?
What? Only 45,000 die per year? I would have guessed more. As tragic as those deaths are, they're a small price to pay for all the wealth creation that's gone on in the executive suites of insurance companies and hospital corporations.
Let's not forget: the business of America is business, not health care. A measly few don't make it, but just think of the marvelous lives of the winners that do! Surely, cherishing the victors is the best way to encourage the losers, no?
They don't die from lack of INSURANCE. They die from lack of HEALTH CARE. Let's get the corrupt, predatory leeches from the insurance agency out of the way.
Why do we constantly get these results of so-called "scientific" studies in the media, but the source articles are almost always hidden behind expensive subscription scientific society journals? This isn't what science is supposed to be about. Just for the sake of argument, I'll say "I don't believe it!"
Needless to say but Fox never covered this unimportant tidbit from Harvard (last time I checked).
A real danger to many health insurance buyers (such as here in Florida) is scam health insurance marketed by "ASSOCIATIONS" (there are several out there, one set of examples is Mega Life Ins. Co. and National ASSOCIATION of Self Employed aka "NASE"). BTW, these programs are not permitted in several states. For the first 2 years, unless the claim is an accident, they will apply their legal right to outright deny claims by asserting that the claimant had one or more pre-existing conditions or didn't include some doctor visit in the application. Because you get a CERTIFICATE OF INSURANCE (not a Policy) any legal challenge has to be made in the state in which the policy is issued (IT WILL NOT BE YOUR STATE). A few months prior to the 2 year pre-existing time window expiring, the insurance company will begin raising rates to drive you to another ASSOCIATION whose agent will sell you a virtually identical “policy” (another certificate of insurance actually) for much less; thus, you’ll buy it and the 2 year pre-existing game starts over. If you remain healthy throughout this series of scams, you will have no idea just how precarious your financial and health situation has been; but if you get sick, really sick, you are in real trouble. I know. I was a health insurance agent and manager in Florida (Mutual of Omaha, United American, Time/Fortis) and much health insurance that I competed against was this inexpensive ASSOCIATION insurance. Real life situation: I had a potential client who had this ASSOCIATION insurance when his wife developed breast cancer. Because the insurance was less than 2 years old, the insurance company, claiming that this was a pre-existing condition (which it was not), asserted its right to refuse to pay for diagnostics and treatment. Essentially they ended up with NO INSURANCE. These people ended up losing all their savings, their business (a small car repair shop) and, in the end, THE LADY DIED. She did not receive timely treatment because they could not immediately come up with the cash to cover the cost of some expensive medical services nor could they qualify for Medicaid because they had too much "wealth" (the car repair shop).
[...] The Raw Story » Study: 45000 Americans die each year for lack of … [...]
Are these the same people that want to vaccinate everyone with the poisonous H1N1 cocktail?
Do you actually beleive ANYTHING the government tells you?
[...] 45,000 Americans Die Each Year for Lack of Health Insurance – Harvard researchers published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health a study which reveals roughly 45,000 American adults die every year because they are not covered by health insurance. Researchers specifically noted that lack of health insurance now kills more adults than kidney disease. [...]
Investigate this study. I've heard very faulty. They don't even know if they had insurance when the people dies. Its like saying they all ate carrots in the last six
months of there life and then died. Making it look as if they died from eating carrots. Very bad study and misleading. Don't take my work investigate. That is
what you have to do these days to find out truth.
[...] party’s efforts to stonewall meaningful health care reform perpetuate a status quo in which 45,000 Americans die every year because they lack health care coverage and thousands more see their policies canceled or denied by private insurers that are beholden to [...]
[...] the party’s efforts to stonewall meaningful health care reform perpetuate a status quo in which 45,000 Americans die every year because they lack health care coverage and thousands more see their policies canceled or denied by private insurers that are beholden to [...]
[...] party’s efforts to stonewall meaningful health care reform perpetuate a status quo in which 45,000 Americans die every year because they lack health care coverage and thousands more see their policies canceled or denied by private insurers that are beholden to [...]
Um - 45,000 die out of 60,000,000 without health insurance - you do realize that it's less than one tenth of one percent? Compare that with how many people die in this country every year - less than one percent, but a LOT greater than one tenth of a percent. I'd say that we can use statistics however we'd like. The truth is - NO ONE - democrat, republican, or independent wants anyone to die. To say otherwise is just trying to create hysteria. Let's move past the hysterical arguments and try and reform our health care system so that it is better...find a way to provide preventative care for the poorest among us, enact tort reform to protect doctors and hospitals from frivolous lawsuits, and i think things will be better. We don't need an entire new system. Our system is one of the best in the world. It just needs some reform within the system - let's work together to make it happen! Studies like this just push both sides to dig in their heels and fight for their "side" instead of working for the American people!
[...] Story: Harvard Report [...]
[...] http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/study-45000-americans-die-each-year-for-lack-of-insurance/ [...]
There are Republican plans that insure people. This bill is a monstrosity.
So we should vote for this plan even if it's bad law?
[...] dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner,” Grayson said, referring to the thousands of Americans who have died because they lacked health insurance. Grayson’s comments highlighted a sad [...]
[...] a fact you may have heard before, but bears repeating again and again, as long as right-wing ideologues [...]
This debacle called" America's Health Care Future Act" has become a quagmire of contentious disputing and public bickering, on an issue that is costing American lives each day that it does not get resolved! People are literally dying by the thousands and you have this rhetoric being blasted by cannons from both sides of the political battlefield. I heard Barack Obama say that " If we had started from scratch with this health care reform issue that it would be much easier to do" then why the hell are we not starting from scratch? anything would be better than this watered down bill they call a health care plan, yes watered down and I'll tell you now it got watered down by all those legislators on both sides of the political arena, who have their asses wiped every day by the Health Insurance company lobbyists that are doing everything in there power to not let a public option be part of the new bill. I've got plenty of blame to go around so you to democrats your not in the clear, you guys have a super majority, filibuster proof house, I mean come on what the hell gives here? I really hope that this new so called 'Health Care Bill" that the house drafted up until 3am this past few days does not pass because in my opinion it's just more of the same BULL!!!! It was drafted up in a hurry so this fiasco could finally be resolved and the White House, the GOP, and the news media can finally move on to something else to keep attention from this issue. When this "Baucus Bill" first came up I was so exited that Obama was finally going to change some things, and what better than to start out by shaking these big corporate health insurance companies out of their money grubbing socks, but I guess a few brainwashed people at town halls, and psychos walking outside cityhall with a picket sighn in one hand and an AK-47 in the other is enough to actually scare the White House into unchanging comprimise that is going to effect every single citizen in this country as well as our children and their children. I was so happy that a proper health care change was going to come to this country especialy knowing that my party had the political know how, the political capitol, and a President who himself saw what greedy insurance companies were able to do to a family and thier loved ones, but I was surely mistaken so excuse all of my cynicism. I still do hold out a little hope because there are still a few in Congress that are as outraged as I am, and they are doing everything in their power to get through to the right people. One of these people is Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, who last week said it the way it should have been said!
[...] Are 47 Million Uninsured Americans Obama Falsely Claims There Are 47 Million Uninsured Americans The Raw Story
[...] each year due to lack of health insurance but Republicans are in no hurry to reform healthcare! The Raw Story
People, including my 61 year old sister, are dying because they cannot get healthcare unless they have insurance. She had been going to the same doctors
for the past 4 years and yet they did not diagnose Liver Cancer until three days before she died in the emergency room. She didn't need to die if the doctor had ordered the correct tests instead of doing nothing since she had on health insurance.
I' m of course angry, but it it both a republican and democrate problem. Please change before my whole family is gone,.