Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
135,000 Uninsured Americans Will Die Before Health Reform Takes Effect, Analysis Finds
Over 6,600 Uninsured Veterans Will Die by 2013: Estimate
If Democrats manage to pull off efforts to reform the US healthcare system and ensure coverage for millions who are currently without insurance, the new system -- by design -- will likely still leave tens of thousands to die without insurance before reforms kick in.
A Raw Story analysis, based on a recent Harvard Medical School study, estimates that 135,000 American citizens and over 6,600 US veterans will die due to a lack of health insurance before current proposed healthcare reform measures would take effect.
One hundred and thirty-five thousand US lives far exceeds the total number of Americans who died in the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the attacks of 9/11 combined. The lives of over 6,600 US veterans is more -- by over 1,300 -- than the total number of US soldiers who have thus far died in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-author of the Harvard Medical School study, called Raw Story's estimates "quite reasonable."
Even more shocking is that these are modest estimates.
Health reform policy experts who spoke with Raw Story confirmed that the House and Senate bills would do virtually nothing for currently uninsured Americans until 2013 and 2014, respectively. Raw Story's calculations are based on the House health reform bill's projections. The Senate bill, however, would add another year of lethal lag time, driving up the estimated death rate by tens of thousands more US citizens and veterans.
In part, the proposed Senate and House healthcare reform bills don't begin providing comprehensive coverage for several years because they are designed to meet President Obama's promised goal of creating a "deficit-neutral" healthcare package.
Raw Story's analysis is based on a recent Harvard Medical School study published in the American Journal of Public Health and a subsequent report by a team of Harvard Medical School researchers who took part in the initial study.
The first study revealed that approximately 45,000 Americans die each year from lack of health insurance. The second study, released on the eve of this past Veterans Day, estimated that more than 2,200 US veterans died in 2008 due to a lack of health insurance.
In an interview with Raw Story, Dr. David Himmelstein, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the two studies, also pointed out a rarely discussed fact: The proposed reforms in both the House and Senate bills, even in the long run, would still leave "vast numbers" of Americans uninsured and those who are partially insured with inadequate coverage.
In the House bill, for instance, even after uninsured Americans would begin receiving health insurance, a projected 18 million would still not be covered; roughly 23 million would remain uninsured in the Senate bill.
"So basically they've taken the bad approach and the slow approach both," said Himmelstein, a proponent of a national single-payer healthcare system. "And there's no particular reason other than political expediency why either of those things should exist."
Veterans' advocate says analysis 'very disturbing'
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, called Raw Story's analysis "very disturbing" and said the "tragic" numbers demand "immediate action by the President of the United States."
"Veterans for Common Sense is outraged that, in 2009, veterans are dying because of a lack of healthcare," Sullivan said. "We believe healthcare is a human right."
He did, however, credit President Obama for taking steps to reverse what he described as former President Bush's "deplorable" legacy of neglecting veterans' health.
Sullivan also believes this is a national security issue and cited, for example, the correlation between the shortage of physicians in the military and the suicide epidemic.
Just last month, the Christian Science Monitor reported that the US Army is understaffed by as many as 800 mental health professionals and 300 substance abuse counselors. On Monday, Time magazine reported that the Army has so far lost 147 soldiers this year to suicide, which is the highest number of suicides since the Army began keeping track of them in 1980.
"You can't deploy someone to war two or three times and never give them a mental health exam," Sullivan said.
"And when a veteran says he's having nightmares, he can't sleep and has to see a doctor," he continued, "but he has to wait several months before someone tells him he's not going to see a doctor at all and then goes and blows his brains out. That's essentially what's happening right here. And that's a legacy of President Bush's failure."
Woolhandler, who testified before Congress in 2007 about uninsured veterans, also sees these numbers, both for US veterans and everyday citizens as a national security issue.
"Other developed countries have dealt with it that way," said Woolhandler, who supports a single-payer healthcare system. "They've said as a matter of national policy, we need to make our people healthy and secure financial health with health insurance and have felt that was a national obligation. I think that the other nations are correct in that regard."
Himmelstein said that the health of our citizens and veterans is not considered a national security issue "because the powerful forces in our country don't care about the people who die."
"The insurance companies and the corporate interests who largely fund our government don't actually care if 45,000 people or 2,200 veterans die," he said. "They do care to maintain the US control of, or at least contention for, oil-rich parts of the world and strategic assets and those sorts of things. So I think it's a matter of what's in the interest of the corporations that by and large make policy in this country."
Why the wait until 2013 or 2014?
While a new health insurance system certainly can't be implemented overnight, health and policy experts believe the delay in providing uninsured Americans with health insurance is chiefly due to political considerations.
Dr. Himmelstein asked, "Why do we need to wait three or four years for a program to kick in?" and noted the speed with which Medicare went into effect.
President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law on July 30, 1965 and millions of seniors began receiving coverage within 11 months.
Himmelstein said the reason for the delay in either of the health reform bills is "very simple" and called it an "accounting trick."
"It's because it's so expensive that in order to get a ten-year budget estimate that's under the $900 billion figure, you have to delay it for three or four years," he explained. "It's really a budget estimate that's only six years worth of reform. That's the only way they can keep the cost estimate down to something that's conceivable."
Agreeing with Himmelstein's assessment, Dr. Woolhandler said, "Logistics are doable in a very short timeframe. The politics are the difficult part."
She added, "Ten years of taxes and six or seven years of benefits, so of course you can make something break even."
Steve Findlay, senior health policy analyst at Consumers Union, the independent non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, thinks that's "absolutely" the case and described it as "a tried and true" method of funding big government programs.
"Part of the drill here is to start collecting money and then the benefit doesn't actually kick in until later," Findlay said. "Once you begin to parse things out, you realize that one of your most substantial ways of saving money or of making the budget work is to, well, let's just put that off for a year."
Congressional Budget Office spokeswoman Melissa Merson declined to comment for this article.
Findlay, though, did point out that it's going to take time to set up the new marketplace.
But he added, "Could they do it faster than 2014 or 2013? You know, you go to war sometimes in two weeks. So I mean when you want to do things, you can do them. But in this case, arguably it's not war. We would love to see it implemented sooner."
Additionally, Findlay sees "industry influence" as a deciding factor in the lag time.
He explained that whenever large-scale changes and "mega programs" like this are launched they usually have an implementation process that takes two to three years.
"But the reason for that, speaking very frankly," Findlay said, "is industry influence on the process. Industry will always be arguing in the hallways of Congress, ‘If you're going to do it, you know, at least give us a few years.' And their argument is always the same really: ‘It's going to cost us a lot of money to do this. We have to change our systems. We have to readjust our products and our services.' And blah, blah, blah."
"That's an argument that almost always prevails with respect to whether it's environmental regulations, welfare policy, you name it," he continued.
But Findlay noted the stimulus package, in which some of our largest financial institutions received a government bailout in a much shorter timeframe, was an exception.
Margaret F. Riley, a health law professor at the University of Virginia, thinks the budget is a "huge" reason for the delay. Yet she also believes there are other reasonable political considerations at play, such as the desire to avoid negatively affecting the health insurance of Americans who are already receiving benefits in the process of rolling out a new system.
Still, she said, "I'm not a fan of the delay. I think there are many reasons the delay runs risks."
Her primary concern is what might transpire in the interim.
"In the political world," Riley noted, "four years is an eternity and anything could happen to any bill passed."
The White House, Senate Leader Harry Reid's office, and House Leader Nancy Pelosi's office did not return Raw Story's calls for comment.
- Posted in
45 Comments so far
Show AllThis is abysmally continuing DEMiserepublican "Health" Deform. Single-payer OR SINGLE TERMination for DEM ALL!
No doubt that the Republicans and the Evangelicals and the Catholics will have their way and kill any hope of healthcare reform for generations. Thus causing millions of Americans to needlessly suffer and die in poverty. Is this Chris-tianity or Curse-tianity?
Heads lopped off in the name of Christ during the crusades were the number one cause of death for a century.
Health insurance reform is a moral imperative and should have a sense of urgency- however creating a plan that makes coverage unaffordable is not going to help people. Currently the progressives in the Senate have lost their voice and conviction- seemingly willing to compromise away any form of counter weight to the health insurance industry. This must stop...
A Matter of Principle....
Without support from the White House- Senator Reid and others have fought for inclusion of choice in the Senate version of the health care reform package. Choice refers to offering a public insurance option to the mandated private insurance option now under discussion. The later is effectively a give-away to the health insurance industry. Without a countervailing public option- the public is at the mercy of the private health insurance industry. Already enjoying an effective monopoly- the industry will be able to dictate rates, curtail plans by exploiting loopholes and achieve excessive profits (at the expense of the insured). Further there will be no effective control over the growth of health care spending as a percentage of GDP- resulting in spiraling rates that could potentially bankrupt individuals and the federal government.
Recently a compromise was proposed that extended Medicare to those between 55 and 65 and expanded Medicaid to the poor. In return, the public option was abandoned. This compromise was a major strategic blunder by Democratic leaders. Now it appears, due to opposition from future health care lobbyist Senator Joe Lieberman- that even the extension of Medicare and Medicaid is dead- with the public option already given away.
The Democrats must take a stand. They must oppose health care reform without either a strong public option and/or the expansion of existing programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to cover those most at risk. Their position should in fact be an expansion of Medicare to Americans of all ages- effectively embracing a single payer plan.
HEALTH CARE FOR ALL ---- HOW THINGS WOULD CHANGE
(1) Government would quickly identify high-fat diet as major cause of illness,
average American diet being 50% fats. Then a stiff tax on high-fat foods
would bankrupt the processed food industry.
(2) Medical industry would lose 90% of customers and unemployment
would exceed 30%
(3) Excessive wealth capitalism would be replaced with democratic equality.
1) something no other country with socialized medicine does.
2) something that has happened in no other country with socialized medicine.
3) something that had not happened in any other country that has socialized medicine.
alabama_john doesn't know what he's talking about.
Alabama_john must not have any friends in Canada or Austria, or any other sane country, or he just doesn't talk about such things to them, or he can't remember what they talked about. He is the perfect constituent of the new Corporate Fascism in America.
Very true, I have wondered myself why this this excessive obsession with healthy eating, deep suspecion and distrust of modern medical science, and exagerated claims of health and longevity if these healthy diets are followed, seem to be so peculiarly USAn - especially among it's bourgeois liberal class.
It is as if, out of despair at ever having fair distribution of health care resources to all, they lash out in all the wrong directions.
I have often wondered myself why this excessive obsession
with the rich taste of 80% fat foods, deep suspicion and
distrust of common horse-sense, and exaggerating claims of
no harm in junk food void of nutrition, seem to be so
peculiarly to the self-absorbed majority of Empire USA.
hue_sir_name must not have any friends in all the nations
that he and his self-absorbed majority have plundered by
their Empire USA. He is the perfect constituent of the
new Corporate Fascism in America.
If America ate a 10% fąt diet, average being 50% fąt,
illness would be reduced by 90% and free healthcare would
cost government less then it now spends on Medicare.
And the peer-reviewed source for this wonder of medical research is? The idea that food alone determines the likelyhood of contracting disease, cancer or other health issues is making you look silly.
I do agree that if people ate healthier foods, they'd get ill less often. But that doesn't mean that they'd not get ill at all, or that the healthcare spending would drop by 90%. The only way to reduce health spending by 90% would be to start killing the sick. I'll hope you agree that that option isn't a good one.
This author, like almost every other discussion on this topic, writes about proposed health care reform "providing" insurance to the uninsured. Forcing people to purchase health insurance isn't "providing" anything. It is a sick form of indentured servitude for fear of dying. American taxpayers already spend plenty for already-paid-for single payer health care. Instead, our money that should pay for health care for all gets squandered on vast military expenditures, preemptive wars, subsidies for pharmaceutical companies, subsidies for corporate farming, subsidies from you and I so these multi-national corporations can incorporate off shore and pay zero taxes, yadda yadda yadda, ad nauseam. At this point, I'd prefer nothing to pass, rather than this huge give away to the health insurance monopoly. The actual reforms in both bills are offset to a huge degree, by there being no real effective cost containment measures, thus, as the reforms are dropped away with the coming Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the provision making it illegal to not buy insurance will surely remain. What a bloody nightmare to think about eh?
"Forcing people to purchase health insurance isn't "providing" anything. It is a sick form of indentured servitude for fear of dying."
Yes! But this healthcare plan relies on the wonderful freedom of the wonderful all-American free markets! Under this syatem, even the rich propertied class are required to not interefre with anyone's freedom of choice! For the non-propertied, this choice is between either indentured servitude or sickness and starvation. But hey, that's Freedom!
DOCTORS ---- THE BOTTLENECK
(1) Virtually all doctors and medical specialists retire millionaires.
(2) Major cause of illness is diet, average American diet being 50% fats.
still no doctor is required to take one course in nutrition, and hardly a
doctor ever brings up the subject of diet with a patient.
(3) Your friendly family doctor makes most of his income referring customers
to a specialist, as a universal referral fee gives him a 40% kickback, a full 40%
of all money given to the specialist. No need for a doctor to expand his training
or skills as it would just reduce profit.
(4) Now a black-out on any discussion about doctors. Only 25% of doctors
belong to AMA, only a very small number go public or take any position on
healthcare reform.
My oh my, so saying 'ass' is enough to get you flagged these days? Who's the idiot who flagged this comment? I wish that CD would post the name of the flagger and the reason that the flagging was done.
When I first saw you're post I thought you were talking about alabama_john's post...
But if you were talking about the article, than I think the number is an extrapolation of the Harvard medical study about those yanks who die because they don't have health care now each year; 44,000 I think...
Either way, you shouldn't have been flagged. You weren't being half as rude as I've been from time to time...
WHY DIET OFF THE TABLE
(1) Doctors never mention diet to a patient as it would chase customers away.
(2) Medical schools give doctors not one course in diet as ignorance is bless.
(3) Health insurers are silent on diet as it is the major cause of illness and
improving America’s health destroys future growth in medicine.
(4) Congress has diet off the table as it would cause unhealthy food to be
taxed, reduce the consumption of processed food and medical care,
and bankrupt two of our largest and most profitable industries.
Above post is pure fiction,
“Babylon, land of deepest shadow and deep darkness,
where even light is like darkness.”
"WHY DIET OFF THE TABLE"
That's kinda funny. Should we eat on the floor? hee
But seriously, the discussion is about access to medical care which most agree is a fundamental human right, yet not available, and unlikely to be anytime soon, in that supposed bastion of freedom, the shining city on the hill, the USA.
Unlike medical/dental care, diet is personal choice. Education and an easing of the stresses of current American life will readily solve most of the obesity probs.
RISE AND FALL OF EMPIRE USA
(1) Paid actor Joe Lieberman just gave our self-absorbed majority
another smoke screen dose of brainwash and they have been pacified.
(2) CIA coup dictatorship in Honduras 130 days old, 36 innocent
protesters wasted and now only the rich nobility allowed to publish news.
(3) Wars in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan going as scheduled, another
60 thousand troops on the way and Venezuela scheduled to be boomed in 2010.
(4) All our wealth has been shipped out of the country, unemployment will
reach 20% next year along with massive inflation.
(5) A Public Option that does nothing to reduce medical costs will become law,
average American diet will continue to be 50% fats, and medical industry will
have record growth with illness scheduled to increase by 10% next year.
(6) Purpose of this world being to prove the harm in it, and all things will turn
toward the good the moment things cannot possibly get any worse.
RISE AND FALL OF EMPIRE USA
Unfortunately, a public option of any merit was immediately labeled as being "Communism, Fascism, Socialism," or any other -ism by those most at risk financially were the rapacious private health insurance companies forced to compete with an organization whose purpose was not that of making the most money for themselves, but that of actually insuring the health of their clients.
Among those most guilty of using scare tactics reminiscent of the "Red Scare" of long ago are not only the higher-ups of the insurance companies or those from the big pharmaceutical companies, but worse still, those in Congress who are essentially bought off by lobbyists representing these companies.
With regard to the other "claims" made within your posting, I found them both so incomprehensible linguistically and rife with accusations of no merit whatsoever that I won't attempt to formulate any sort of rebuttal to them.
The facts, whether you or others are willing to accept them or not, are facts nonetheless. Millions of Americans not only are forced to declare bankruptcy, lose their homes, go without medical attention, or simply die because the rates imposed by insurance companies continue to skyrocket while the wages in this country remain stagnant.
Studies that are superficial are worthless.
I noticed that his study is based on other studies and projections from other reports and no where does he address the problem of counting how many of these people received health care before they died.
Just because you died without health insurance in America does not mean you did not receive health care.
Most people get health care, even if you are here illegally. The problem is when people get their care.
This article is based primarily on common horse-sense,
and it is priceless.
Affordable healthcare like clean air and water are a human right - we can't live without it. But in our Fascist Republic humans count for nothing - only the Corporations and Big Brother's government machine matters.
Congress is a team effort....no strong health care reform, no reelection! It's a simple message just send it and follow up and do it, no exceptions.
Diet is relevant to the health care crisis in the US. With Obesity spiraling upward- estimates say that 43% will be obese by 2018, this is hardly a trivial matter. It is politically incorrect to mention obesity during an average doctor visit. Chances are the doctors themselves suffer from obesity to the same degree as their patients.
The obesity epidemic really took off for real in the early '80's. This was the same time that Raygun also completely ignored the AIDS epidemic, telling us that "It's only a queer disease after all. It's OK if they just go ahead and die" - Not a direct quote, but something similar had to have been said hundreds of times.
True, and with the average American diet being 50% fat,
surely it is self-evident to all. Surely our national
health problem is an addiction to food problem.
I agree 100% Alabama john. . Finding a cure through medication would be helpful, but as you know, a lot could be done by all of us thru proper diet and exercise. Self discipline however can be tough. But if circumstances exist whereby
medication is needed, I wanted to possible help some people out there by letting them know about a site that few people know about, but can help greatly in paying less for all their medications, diabetes included. I have known as least 10 people it has helped, some diabetic, some with other prescriptions they get, and hopefully this will help get the word out. The site is www.medpap.ws and tho it's "free," the "catch" is that they want you in their store hoping you will impulse shop and pick up other items while you are there. One of the oldest marketing ploys in the world, but if you can just use the card....enjoy the savings, and don't buy anything else you don't truly need, you will beat the system. There also is a short 1 minute video to explain how it works. It is a good program that
saves you money so I hope u take advantage of it. Take care and hopefully great health will be a reality for all of us one day.
POST BELOW ---- BY PAID ACTOR
Off topic and pure garbage confusion
"135,000 Uninsured Americans Will Die Before Health Reform Takes Effect"
How many more will die _after_ the MANDATORY INSURANCE "reform" is put in place ... instead of giving us REAL REFORM in the form of comprehensive Universal Single-payer Health CARE?
What makes the REGRESSIVE idiots think that people who can't afford premiums now are going to be able to afford them _after_ "reform?
Universal Single-payer, which _might_ result in a very modest boost in taxes, would be far cheaper than the rates we're going to get under a MANDATORY privatized INSURANCE. The CBO has NEVER done a cost analysis of Single-payer, but with the elimination of the 35% of current INSURANCE costs that go for things other than patient care, it HAS to be cheaper.
Let's stop fooling ourselves. The "reform" coming out of Congress is NOT going to solve the problems. The insurance industry has been promising for over 30 years to "fix" health care. The FIX is in. They've "fixed" it by buying Congress.
Joe Lieberman needs to go bury his head up his butt and STFU! He is OWNED by CIGNA and Aetna. Connecticut voters should have REMOVED him after he was such a sore loser in the primaries last year, but the Repugnican'ts walked away from their own nominee and backed Lieberman. He needs to join the Obstructionist Party.
Sitting in our living rooms and being quiet, obedient citizens is getting us nowhere. Time to revive the tactics of the 1960s.
Estimated 100,000 Americans die EACH YEAR from PREVENTABLE HOSPITAL ERRORS....and that number might be a lot larger than estimated:
http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/medical-errors-cause-increasing-number-preventable-deaths-each-year-3559.html
The 2009 report from Hearst points out that the 1999 report encouraged states to require medical error reporting, although 10 years later we are less than halfway there. In addition, the “To Err Is Human” report stated that the public “has the right to be informed about unsafe conditions,” yet 45 states and the District of Columbia fail to provide hospital-specific information.
The 1999 report also made the recommendation for the creation of a national patient safety center that today remains under-funded and falling short of expectations. In addition, only a handful of hospitals heard and responded to the urging of the report to pursue comprehensively safer patient care. In fact, the “Dead By Mistake” report shows that medical errors are more numerous than they were a decade ago. Since 1999, it is estimated that nearly 2 million people have died of preventable medical errors and hospital-acquired infections.
--
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the
oppressed." --Steve Biko
Health Care Reform is just a joke. It's a smokescreen to obscure the war issue. It's working well because so many people are distracted by it. It lets the bombs keep falling and torture keep occurring.
It's more than that: it's the next bailout.
The 135,000 that will die according to this study, is absolutely irrelevant to most in Congress; after all, we have killed millions of people in foreign countries and like Madeline Albright said: " it was worth it". These same people have no compassion or empathy and just like Hitler with the Jews, most of these legislators could care less about America's sick and dieing new Jews. They are not important, because big pharma and the insurance corportocracy is the altar where they worship. We never hear a peep about the $ spent on the wars, no that is off limits to these fascists, but people sick and dieing from lack of health care. We cannot afford that. What has this country become, when we have plenty of $ to kill people, but not enough $ to save lives and help people to get well! American Congress: I AM ASHAMED OF YOU!
You have just summed-up my feelings to the letter.
It's pretty sad when I realize that I am even ashamed to admit that I live in what should be the world's richest country, yet it remains the lone industrialized country on the planet where each and every citizen, regardless of what they have -- or don't -- in their bank accounts.
Here are a few numbers to underscore the facts behind my claim:
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-healthcare.htm
And no, I won't go to some other country where everyone has healthcare; this country needs to stop proclaiming itself as being the best at everything in the world, and start doing some major catching-up.
Congress: our Temple of Democracy has become completely infested with money grubbing vermin. What would/did Jesus do? Turn over the tables and start anew. Cleaning this pig sty will not be as easy as the Herculean task of cleaning the Augean stables. Time for the seperate states to convene another Constitutional Convention. We will need to kill Corporate 'Personhood' and repudiate the national debt for starters.
"135,000 Uninsured Americans Will Die Before Health Reform Takes Effect"
It's not exactly "collateral damage". More like Friendly Fire. Or perhaps "Mission Accomplished".
Yeah, but just think of all the fetuses they'll save with that clause. If they all die in infancy because they have no healthcare...oh, well, that's a chance we all have to take.