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Group links deaths to lack of insurance

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 25, 2008 at 1:48 p.m.
Updated March 25, 2008 at 11:13 p.m.

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Each day in Colorado one person dies unnecessarily because he or she doesn't have health insurance, a group advocating universal coverage said Tuesday.

The nonprofit Families USA used a 30-year study of deaths and insurance status to reach the conclusion that 360 Coloradans die prematurely every year because they didn't have health insurance.

The assumption, based on death statistics, is that a person without coverage has a 25 percent greater chance of dying prematurely.

It's the same methodology used by the national Institute of Medicine and, later, the Urban Institute, to put the number of deaths nationwide due to lack of insurance at 18,000 to 22,000 yearly.

Linda Gorman, health policy analyst for the free-market think tank the Independence Institute, has been a vocal critic of reports that purport to enumerate the lives lost to lack of insurance coverage, saying it is simply guesswork.

Gorman, who served on Colorado's Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform, says government-sponsored health care will be inefficient and raise taxes so much that care will have to be rationed.

That could lead to, say, no more hip replacements or knee replacements after a certain age, and to long lines to wait for treatment, she has said.

Families USA director Ron Pollock said Tuesday that people without insurance try to shrug off their pain or ignore their disease symptoms, hoping they will go away.

It's common for the uninsured to miss a round of antibiotics or early diagnosis of cancer, he said. A simple intervention is missed, so the problem gets worse, and sometimes it's too late for heroic measures.

Paul Hannum, a University of Colorado graduate and filmmaker, couldn't get health insurance because he'd been treated for melanoma years back and insurance companies wouldn't cover his pre-existing conditions unless he paid exorbitant premiums, his sister, Kristen Hannum said.

Paul was living in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2006 when he came down with a stomachache, she said. "I sometimes wonder if he'd be alive today if I hadn't told him that I had had to go to the emergency room that same year and it cost me $17,000 for three hours," Hannum said.

Comments

  • March 25, 2008

    9:49 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    redwhiteandBLUE writes:

    That's true, I have family members that work but they don't get benefits, like health ins. They go to the emergency room and get hit with a thousand dollar bill, next time doesnt return and doesn't go to the doctor because the doctor said "I can't give you a referral to a specialist" because you have "no insurance".
    So, something is going on and there's no help till it's too late.

  • March 26, 2008

    8:20 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    kathyM writes:

    Let's start fixing it by no longer allowing insurers to deny coverage or price gouge for "pre-existing conditions." HIPAA supposedly does that, but only if a person changes insurance or is not covered for something ridiculous like 60 days. Insurers will squawk, but they have plenty of options to profitably spread the risk (e.g., reinsurance)--options that don't include the taxpayer.

  • March 26, 2008

    9:21 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    CWW writes:

    Yes, it's the insurance companies that are causing the healthcare problem. They decide who will be insured, and keep the premiums high.

    Another problem are the rates: when you go to the hospital, they will charge the insurance company the negoiated rate for your x-ray, say $53. If you go to the hospital without insurance, you get charged the full retail rate of $200.

    This could and should be changed so those without insurance are not penalized. Hospitals charge huge amounts they know they will not get from the insurance company, why should they get them from an uninsured patient?

  • March 26, 2008

    9:48 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Theoldguy writes:

    Asking the government to fix a preexisting condition (being broken beyond repair)in the health care debate is like asking the Three Stooges for help. The entire scheme has developed by paper-pushers and greed by both doctors and pharmaceuticals. Lawyers (ambulance chaser's)have contributed with frivolous lawsuits in the past.
    The "upside" is that if enough of the uninsured die off the problem will go away. I'm sure this method is preferable to many bureaucrats.
    The bottom line is that the whole system needs to be overhauled. In other words the god-like doctors and hospitals need to feel the monetary pain like the rest of us low life.

  • March 26, 2008

    9:52 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    gary writes:

    Linda Gorman, health policy analyst for the free-market think tank the Independence Institute, has been a vocal critic of reports that purport to enumerate the lives lost to lack of insurance coverage, saying it is simply guesswork.

    Yes, everyone...it is guesswork...each year millions who have health insurance ......DIE.... sooner or later..we all will do it.

    Health care is not an entitlement! Period.

    If you want free health care...go to the emergency room and tell them you are an illegal immigrant. Then you can have free health care.

    Nuff Said