Consequences
A study published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2009 found that lack of health insurance is associated with about 45,000 excess preventable deaths per year. One of the authors characterized the results as "now one dies every 12 minutes." Since then, as the number of uninsured has risen from about 46 million in 2009 to 48.6 million in 2012, the number of preventable deaths due to lack of insurance has grown to about 48,000 per year.
A Hearst Newspapers investigation called medical error "far more deadly than inadequate medical insurance." The number of Americans with access to care who are killed by medical errors is estimated from 44,000 to hundreds of thousands each year, and the New England Journal of Medicine published a study finding that American hospitals injured around 20% of all patients every year from 2002-2007. Notably, Representative John Murtha, who had voted for the House healthcare reform bill in 2009, died from a surgical error in 2010. Moreover, the best predictor of longevity is education; in study after study, money and health insurance "pale in comparison."
A survey released in 2008 found that being uninsured impacts American consumers' health in the following ways:
- More of the uninsured chose not to see a doctor when were sick or hurt (53%) vs 46% of the insured.
- Fewer of the uninsured (28%) report currently undergoing treatment or participating in a program to help them manage a chronic condition; 37% of the insured are receiving such treatment.
- 21% of the uninsured, vs. 16% of the insured, believe their overall health is below average for people in their age group.
The costs of treating the uninsured must often be absorbed by providers as charity care, passed on to the insured via cost-shifting and higher health insurance premiums, or paid by taxpayers through higher taxes. On the other hand, the uninsured often subsidize the insured because the uninsured use fewer services and are often billed at a higher rate. 60 Minutes reported, "Hospitals charge uninsured patients two, three, four or more times what an insurance company would pay for the same treatment." On average, per capita health care spending on behalf of the uninsured is a bit more than half that for the insured.
A study published in August 2008 in Health Affairs found that covering all of the uninsured in the US would increase national spending on health care by $122.6 billion, which would represent a 5% increase in health care spending and 0.8% of GDP. The impact on government spending could be higher, depending on the details of the plan used to increase coverage and the extent to which new public coverage crowded out existing private coverage. Massachusetts' law requiring everyone to buy insurance has reportedly caused costs there to increase faster than in the rest of the country.
Over 60% of personal bankruptcies is caused by medical bills. Most of these persons had medical insurance.
Read more about this topic: Health Insurance Coverage In The United States
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