U.S. Census Bureau data showed nearly 48 million Americans were without health insurance in 2007, and nearly 7 million more people will lose their health care coverage by the end of 2010. According to Harvard Researchers, medical problems caused 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007. The loss of health insurance can have a detrimental effect not only on finances but on health as well.
Consequences
Research conducted in 1997 and 1998 led by Dr. John Ayanian and reported in "JAMA" in 2000l noted that living without health insurance even temporarily negatively affects health. Unmet Health Needs of Uninsured Adults in the United States notes that individuals who lost health care in the previous 12 months were almost three times more likely to not schedule a needed visit to the doctor.
Overall Mortality
A study conducted by the Institute of Medicine in 2002--Care without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late, The National Academies Press--estimated that people without health insurance have a 25 percent higher mortality rate than comparable individuals who have health care coverage.
Traumatic Injuries
Research conducted by Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found patients without health insurance are almost twice as likely to die from car accidents and other traumatic injuries than people with health coverage. This finding is in spite of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, passed by Congress in 1986, that guarantees that all people brought to emergency rooms get necessary treatment whether or not they have health insurance.
Second-Rate Treatment
The Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital research involved more than 687,000 patients admitted to trauma centers across the U.S. between 2002 and 2006. The study found uninsured patients often had to wait longer for treatment, were less apt to be screened for certain types of cancer and received fewer diagnostic services such as MRIs and CT scans.
To compound the problem, uninsured patients may be more apt to have underlying medical conditions that have not been addressed, making it more difficult to recover from traumatic injuries. The study findings were reported in the Archives of Surgery.
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