|
HEALTH CARE FOR ALL!
LATEST STUDY!!!
Harvard study finds nearly 45,000 excess deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/september/harvard_study_finds_.php#startcontent
Lack of health insurance now more lethal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 17, 2009
Contacts:
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.
David Himmelstein, M.D.
Andrew P. Wilper, M.D., M.P.H.
Mark Almberg, Physicians for a National Health Program, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org
David Lerner or Karmen Ross, Riptide Communications, (212) 260-5000
A study published online today estimates nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002.
The new study, “Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults,” appears in today’s online edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
The Harvard-based researchers found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess death rate found in 1993.
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.
Deaths associated with lack of health insurance now exceed those caused by many common killers such as kidney disease.
An increase in the number of uninsured and an eroding medical safety net for the disadvantaged likely explain the substantial increase in the number of deaths associated with lack of insurance. The uninsured are more likely to go without needed care.
Another factor contributing to the widening gap in the risk of death between those who have insurance and those who don’t is the improved quality of care for those who can get it.
The research, carried out at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, analyzed U.S. adults under age 65 who participated in the annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) between 1986 and 1994. Respondents first answered detailed questions about their socioeconomic status and health and were then examined by physicians. The CDC tracked study participants to see who died by 2000.
The study found a 40 percent increased risk of death among the uninsured. As expected, death rates were also higher for males (37 percent increase), current or former smokers (102 percent and 42 percent increases), people who said that their health was fair or poor (126 percent increase), and those that examining physicians said were in fair or poor health (222 percent increase).
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, study co-author, professor of medicine at Harvard and a primary care physician in Cambridge, Mass., noted: “Historically, every other developed nation has achieved universal health care through some form of nonprofit national health insurance. Our failure to do so means that all Americans pay higher health care costs, and 45,000 pay with their lives.”
She added: “Even the most liberal version of the House bill would have left 17 million uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The whittled down Senate bill will be worse — leaving tens of millions uninsured, and tens of thousands dying because of lack of care. Without the administrative savings only attainable through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer reform — real universal coverage will remain unaffordable. Politicians are protecting insurance industry profits by sacrificing American lives.”
Dr. David Himmelstein, study co-author and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, remarked, “The Institute of Medicine, using older studies, estimated that one American dies every 30 minutes from lack of health insurance. Even this grim figure is an underestimate — now one dies every 12 minutes.”
“Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults,” Andrew P. Wilper, M.D., M.P.H., Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., Karen E. Lasser, M.D., M.P.H., Danny McCormick, M.D., M.P.H., David H. Bor, M.D., and David U. Himmelstein, M.D. American Journal of Public Health, Sept. 17, 2009 (online); print edition Vol. 99, Issue 12, December 2009.
A copy of the study, along with a state-by-state breakout of excess deaths from lack of insurance, is available at http://www.pnhp.org/excessdeaths
Physicians for a National Health Program (http://www.pnhp.org/) is a research and educational organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance. To speak with a physician/spokesperson in your area, visit http://www.pnhp.org/stateactions or call (312) 782-6006.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAKE HEALTH CARE AVAILABLE FOR ALL IN OHIO
Sign a petition. Circulate a petition. Support SPAN.
AFSC is working with other organizations and individuals across Ohio to make
health care available to all regardless of income or employment. The goal is
to make health care a right, not a privilege.
The problem
In the United States there were 47 million Americans without health
insurance for all of 2006. Millions more were covered for only part of the
year, and countless others have inadequate coverage with expensive premiums
and deductibles.
The soaring costs of health care and the number of uninsured are at the
forefront of current political debates and union negotiations. Health care
has been voted the number one domestic concern of Americans according to the
Kaiser Foundation.
The solution
The solution to this crisis is in a redefinition of what health care is and
should be. Shouldn’t health care and access to adequate medical treatment be
a right of all citizens? Or should it continue to be privilege reserved for
those who can afford it?
Our current system promotes for health care to remain a privilege. It
allows for a $350 billion industry that cuts costs for corporations by
denying coverage and medical care. Our current system allows 18,000
Americans to die each year due to their inability to access medical care.
It spends 31% of its budget on administrative costs, not on the practice of
medicine.
The solution to this national problem lies in a single payer universal
health care plan, which promises to eliminate the number of uninsured by
ensuring coverage for all citizens. A single payer universal plan works by
establishing a single government fund out of which all health care costs are
paid. All citizens are covered with no co-pays, no deductibles, and no
exclusions. This system establishes access to care as a right, not a
commodity to be bought.
The Single Payer Action Network (SPAN) is promoting this issue to encourage
the Ohio legislature to pass the Health Care for All Ohioans Act.
Nationally, Physicians for a National Healthcare Program (PNHP) and
Healthcare-Now are working to raise awareness of this issue by endorsing and
advocating for H.R. 676, a bill that would establish a national single payer
plan.
Your help needed
In order to get a single payer plan implemented in Ohio a citizens
initiative process is being undertaken. 120,000 valid signatures are
necessary to get this bill in front of the Ohio legislature. The
legislature then has 90 days to act on the initiative. If they fail to do
so another 120,000 different valid signatures are required to get this act
on the ballot. Voters will then have the power to decide if the bill
passes.
To date, SPAN has collected 76,000 of the 120,000 required signatures. The
signatures are adding up fast, but we need your help.
What you can do
If you haven’t already done so, sign a petition.
If you’re able, circulate a petition.
Contact Greg Coleridge at AFSC to sign or circulate a petition. His email is
gcoleridge@afsc.org or call 330-928-2301.
|
