Posted on 02/12/2010 8:17:12 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It's a contentious question, but curiously, one that doesn't get debated nearly as fiercely as things like "how many uninsured people are there?" I find that surprising, because after all, we don't necessarily care whether people are marked by some survey as "insured" or "uninsured"; we care whether there is preventable suffering in the world.
But it turns out to be really hard to determine how many people die without insurance, which is the subject of this month's column. The most recent available study, which also had the largest sample and controlled for the most variables, found no effect at all--a result which surprised the hell out of its author, a former Clinton advisor. Other studies say the number is in the tens of thousands.
The left is predictably fond of the study which got the largest number, 45,000 a year. Unfortunately, its authors are political advocates for a single-payer system, who also helped author the notorious studies on medical bankruptcies. Those studies are very shoddily done, with parameters that somehow always conspire to produce the maximum possible number. In the first study, they set an absurdly low threshhold for what constituted a "medical bankruptcy". In the second, they chose 2006, the year after the 2005 bankruptcy reform act had driven an unprecedented spike in filings. It seems pretty likely that medical bankruptcies were bound to be overrepresented in 2006, since most financial events are easier to see coming than illnesses. But even if you disagree--and the authors offered an incredibly wan explanation of why they did--it's very clear that the people who filed in 2006 were not going to be a representative sample of bankruptcies in a normal year. I can't imagine why you would choose to study 2006 unless you were looking for biased results.
(Excerpt) Read more at meganmcardle.theatlantic.com ...
How many die because they don’t have a choice (the one’s being murdered) in abortion?
How much of the cost of medicare/medicaid is picked up in medical costs by privately insured or selfpay consumers?
“I died from lack of health insurance and I wasn’t even sick” - Joe Strobajincoskow
A bum dies in the street. Did he die because was uninsured? Did he die because of alcohol/drug abuse? Did he die because of a lack of adequate housing? Or did he die because he took no personal responsibility?
“How many people die from being unemployed ?”
“How many die with health insurance?”
Two brilliant responses.
The truth is, NO ONE dies from lack of health insurance. They die from a disease or injury.
There’s an old blues musician in Houston who’s in his 80s now. He had never been to a doctor in his life until recently when he had fluid in his lungs (if I recall).
Life is a terminal disease.
How many had better access to medical care in the United States before the government became so heavily involved in the market?
Yup. And how many people die under socialized medicine where supposedly everyone gets health care?
Socialized medicine will not save lives, it just redistributes death.
NONE!
Especially, since it's illegal.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Tort reform is noticeably absent from the Democrats’ health reform bill. Trial lawyers are among the biggest donors to the DNC (they are the top donors in the state of Texas).
Shhhh! You’re some kind of Healther!
There wasn’t this wild clamor over health insurance until employers started offering it to their employees as a benefit. That fostered jealousy from those whose employers either didn’t offer insurance, or offered less than they were receiving. In short, it’s not really about health at all, but about, “HER health care is better than MY health care! Everyone should be equal! Waaaaaaa!”
The liberals — as is their custom — took advantage of this plaintive wailing from the “underinsured,” not to improve health care, but to have more control over our lives.
The lesson: Every time someone gripes about anything, the liberals see an opportunity.
It is an absolute certainty that all those people will die.
(eventually)
Tell me, under socialized medicine, is there any nation in the world where the doctors routinely make house calls?
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