Washington, D.C. — Three people die each week in Connecticut 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 Connecticuters 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 Connecticuters.
“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 Connecticut makes three specific points about uninsured adults:
* Families USA estimates that three working-age Connecticuters die each week due to lack of health insurance (approximately 150 people in 2006).
* Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 years old in Connecticut who died because they did not have health insurance was more than 1,100.
* 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.
“As this report demonstrates, a lack of health insurance has immense repercussions—twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as died from homicide in 2006,” U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) said today. “This is shocking and is further evidence that we can no longer delay addressing this country's growing health care crisis.
“This is about recognizing and embracing our nation's most serious and constant challenges—challenges that the federal government has the ability, the capacity, the resources, and the moral obligation to help us meet,” DeLauro said.
"This report is telling about the state of our nation's health care system, which is why we must work towards providing coverage to those without and improving the quality of insurance for those with too little," U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney said today. "I have introduced legislation that will help chip away at the number of uninsured workers by ending discriminatory practices that allow individuals with preexisting and chronic conditions to be denied coverage. The report points to a nationwide tragedy that will continue to grow unless it is addressed quickly with similar solutions."
"As more and more of our friends and neighbors are unable to pay for health insurance, or are forced to scale back their coverage because of its high cost, we have to face the facts about what can happen without it," U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy said today. "Health insurance should be a right, not a privilege—and so I am eager to renew the national dialogue about how to make sure that everyone is covered so that in the coming years, we don't have to be releasing a report on the number of deaths every year in Connecticut due to a lack of healthcare."
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.
