Washington, D.C. — More than eight people die each day in California because they don’t have health insurance, says a new report by Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers.
The Families USA report, the first-ever state-specific report of this type, is based on a groundbreaking national study by the Institute of Medicine, which in 2002 forged the direct link between a lack of health coverage and deaths from health-related causes.
“Our report highlights how our inadequate system of health coverage condemns a great number of Californians to an early death simply because they don’t have the same access to health care as their insured neighbors,” Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, said today. “The conclusions are sadly clear—a lack of health coverage is a matter of life and death for many Californians.
“Health insurance really matters in how people make their health care decisions,” Pollack said. “We know that people without insurance often forgo checkups, screenings, and other preventive care.”
As a result, he said, uninsured adults are more likely to be diagnosed with a disease, such as cancer, in an advanced stage, which greatly reduces their chance of survival. The Institute of Medicine found that uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with private health insurance.
Another recent academic study found that uninsured adults between the ages of 55 and 64 are even more likely to die prematurely. For this group, a lack of health insurance is the third leading cause of death, following heart disease and cancer.
The Families USA report for California makes three specific points about uninsured adults:
* Families USA estimates that more than eight working-age Californians die each day due to lack of health insurance (approximately 3,100 people in 2006).
* Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 years old in California who died because they did not have health insurance was nearly 19,900.
* Across the United States, in 2006, twice as many people in that same age category died from a lack of health insurance as died from homicide.
“This new Families USA study highlights a sad statistic that more people in our country died from lack of health insurance than from homicide between 2000-2006,” U.S. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) said today. “In California alone, nearly 20,000 people in that time frame died because of being uninsured.”
“Our nation has more people in jail than anywhere else in the world in its effort to combat crime,” Stark said. “Yet, we allow 47 million people to go without health insurance—which translates into going without needed medical care—each year. It’s time to take action and combat the real killer in our country—the lack of universal health care.”
“It is appalling and irresponsible that more than eight working-age Californians die due to lack of health insurance each day,” U.S. Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-CA) said today. “In California, 60 percent of the uninsured are Latinos, which means that nearly five Latinos die each day because we cannot ensure access to quality, affordable health care.”
“I am fighting in Congress to improve the health of communities of color and strongly support improving access to health care for all populations,” Solis said.
In its 2002 report, the Institute of Medicine estimated that 18,000 adults nationwide died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance. That estimate was later updated by the Urban Institute, which reported that at least 22,000 adults died in 2006 due to a lack of health insurance.
