Lack Of Insurance: The New Killer
March 21, 2008
Apart from the regular killers like cancer, aids, diabetes etc. we now have a new killer - lack of insurance. Many people are putting off a visit to the doctor and the reason is that they don’t have health insurance. In Missouri almost ten working age adults die every week due to lack of insurance. This data is from a Families USA report.
It shows the impact of lack of health insurance on whether people live or die. According to this study in 2000, 18,000 adults died due to lack of insurance. In 1006 this figure rose to 22,000. In 2006 there were about 47 million uninsured Americans. People who are uninsured forego much of the medical care they need including buying medicines.
It seems that insured Americans are healthier and live longer than uninsured ones. It will now be an effort to make affordable health insurance a top priority. This would require partnerships between federal and state governments as well as the private sector. There is also a proposal to expand SCHIP, making it accessible to all who need it.
