Posted on 09/20/2009 1:25:06 PM PDT by bugseye
Steve Milloys "junk science" detector started running high when he got hold of a new study in the American Journal of Public Health claiming nearly 45,000 Americans die from a lack of health insurance.
According to the study, titled "Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults," working-age Americans without insurance have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts. It also includes a chart showing how many people have died state by state, supposedly because of lack of insurance. For example, researchers say 4,675 Texas have died because they didnt have insurance during their study period.
Mr. Milloy, founder and publisher of Junkscience.com and co-founder and portfolio manger for the Free Enterprise Fund, said the study was created to boost President Obamas health care agenda. Mr. Milloy reminded that Mr. Obama recently told Congress people would die if they didnt have insurance.
snip
"They are trying to create these factoids that they can beat opponents over the head with," Mr. Milloy said. "They interviewed 9,000 people between 1988 and 1994 and asked, 'Do you have health insurance?' and if you die at some point in the future, they assume your death was caused by the fact you didnt have insurance during that time you were interviewed."
"That kind of stuff is classic junk science," Mr. Milloy added
John C. Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, agreed that the study was flawed. The subjects were interviewed only once and the study tries to link their insurance status at that time to mortality a decade later. Yet over the period, the authors have no idea whether subjects were insured or uninsured, what kind of medical care they received, or even cause of death, he said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
100% of the people now living are 100% guaranteed to die someday.
Life and Death...get used to it.
Unfortunately, when most people hear that a study said this or that, they accept it on its face. We are a nation of people who don’t know how to evaluate research, and many people don’t understand that *scientists* can and do have agendas.
Just some more “exaggeration and misinformation” from Barry’s fringe weirdo friends.
This has been true so far but it may be changing. Just like playing the race card it is becoming so obvious that there is a new study or two or three every single day and they contradict themselves all the time. Most thinking folk are getting tired and cynical towards all these studies.
And this is the state of our premier Ivy League Colleges research!
An interesting factoid is that hospitals and doctors accidentally kill 90,000 people each year.
They also start with a flawed premise. Barring some situation where it was taped over a sucking chest wound or something like that, I don’t know anyone whose life was saved simply because they had an insurance policy. Any life saving comes from the medical care enabled by having the means to purchase it. If the policy provides lousy care, it’s worthless.
The study does have one interesting set of figures where they correlated body mass index with mortality. They determined that average and plump are good, but those really skinny health freaks could be in big trouble.
bttt
I really hope you’re right. When I taught HS biology, I tried at every opportunity to impress on my students what was required to design a good study or experiment.
Do you mean to tell me we are ALL going to DIE?!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
:-)
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: If they make a mistake, I dont want them punished with a baby.
Unfortunately there is too much garbage in the White House.
You were (are?) a good teacher.
One big problem with these "studies" is that they are simply finding statistical connections between two things and NOT establishing firm cause and effect. So one day caffeine is good for you (maybe) and the next day caffeine is bad for you (maybe).
Another problem is that the sample groups are so small as to be absurd. I've literally heard the talking newsbots say that "seven people in Sweden were studied..." WTF? And they report this on an international news station?
Couldn't they spend the time looking into, say, ACORN or the actual 0bamacare bill or something?
Sheesh.
Exactly. I don’t teach anymore, but I would if we moved back to TX. I miss the kids. They are goofy but they are fun.
15% of the people lie constantly (Politicians)
15% of the people lie most of the time (Lawyers & scientists, educators)
50%of the people lie regularly (Sales & investment advisers)
10% of the people lie occasionally - (machinists)
10% of the people are nuts.
My wife used to teach, too. She feels the same way and uses the same words!
She misses them, too.
This study is of the same validity.
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