Washington, D.C. — Nearly five people die each week in Wisconsin 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 Wisconsinites 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 Wisconsinites.
“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 Wisconsin makes three specific points about uninsured adults:
* Families USA estimates that nearly five working-age Wisconsinites die each week due to lack of health insurance (approximately 250 people in 2006).
* Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 in Wisconsin who died because they did not have health insurance was more than 1,600.
* 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.
“The Families USA report about uninsured Wisconsinites underscores the immediate need to expand health care access to every single person in our state and our nation as a whole,” U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) said today. “I will continue pressing my colleagues in Congress to address this crisis squarely so Wisconsin families are not denied the essential care they need to lead healthy lives.”
“Costs for health care are impossible for everyone—for working families, city and town governments, and every business be they large or small,” U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) said today. “Although Wisconsin is doing better than other states in covering its citizens, we cannot fix a national health care crisis state-by-state. That's why I introduced the No Discrimination in Health Insurance Act, which will begin to establish an open and transparent medical marketplace to guarantee access to affordable care for all of us. Simply put, if you are a citizen, you are in.”
“We must apply our constitutional rights which protect us against discrimination to health care, and make it illegal for any insurance company to discriminate against you due to any pre-existing medical condition,” Kagen 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.
