Dying for Health Care

While politicians and pundits raise the heat and prolong the debate on health care reform, perhaps they should consider this: Nearly 45,000 deaths a year are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online by The American Journal of Public Health. That's one American dying every twelve minutes. The study, conducted at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts.

Researchers analyzed data from surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and assessed death rates. After taking into account education, income, and many other factors, including smoking, drinking, and obesity, they estimated that lack of health insurance causes 44,789 excess deaths annually. That's nearly two-and-a-half times greater than previous estimates by the Institute of Medicine, which were based on older studies.

“Historically, every other developed nation has achieved universal health care through some form of nonprofit national health insurance," said Dr. Steffi Woolhandler, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study. "Our failure to do so means that all Americans pay higher health care costs, and 45,000 pay with their lives.”