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.
If It Is Broke, Fix It You don't need dramatic statistics to convince Dr. Andrew Weil that America's health care system is broken. In his newly released book, Why Our Health Matters (Hudson Street Press), he passionately makes a case for transforming our system from one of disease management to one of health promotion. In fact, he believes it's time for a new paradigm of preventive medicine. Health, he says, shouldn't be defined as the absence of disease but rather, "a positive state of wholeness and balance." Healthy people, says Weil, "are confident, strong, and aware of their vitality, power and even their beauty."His easy to read book lays a future of medicine that rests on a foundation of integrative medicine. While we spend more-much more-- per capita on health care than any other nation in the world, Weil says, "By virtually every measure of health outcomes, including longevity, infant mortality, fitness, and rates of chronic disease, we are at or near the bottom compared to other developed countries." In fact, according to the World Health Organization, the U.S ranks 37th, on par with Serbia."Every American has the right to good health care that is effective, accessible and affordable, that serves you from infancy through old age," says Weil. "Your health-care system should also help you stay in optimum health, not just take care of you when you are sick or injured." Unless we radically change the present system, he predicts, health care costs will sink our economy.Why Our Health Matters is in bookstores, or available online, here. To learn more about Dr. Weils views, you can also check out his videos, including, Secrets of Health and Longevity.
