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How Many People Die From Lack of Health Insurance?
The Atlantic ^ | 02/11/2010 | Megan McCardle

Posted on 02/12/2010 8:17:12 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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To: a fool in paradise

Not many, I would guess. My niece is ill and hasn’t been able to work now for several years. She used to own her own business with employees. After looking for insurance for awhile, she finally found an affordable individual policy with Blue Cross.


41 posted on 02/12/2010 8:39:31 AM PST by twigs
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To: ully2

So if they die sooner because they didn’t have the money to pay for health care - it’s all the same in 100 years.

If they were worth keeping alive, they would have money or health insurance. But since they don’t - why should we care about them? They are *literally* worth less.

But their families still complain and whine, for some reason.


42 posted on 02/12/2010 8:41:37 AM PST by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: SeekAndFind

how many people die from lack of health insurance??

the number is fractional compared to the amount of people who die at an early age because of things like stress or heart attacks because they work to much in order to pay taxes which are fed into entitlement programs which they get nothing from...


43 posted on 02/12/2010 8:44:13 AM PST by God luvs America (When the silent majority speaks the earth trembles!)
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To: SeekAndFind
From The Atlantic, here's the money quote to use against leftists:

The possibility that no one risks death by going without health insurance may be startling, but some research supports it. Richard Kronick of the University of California at San Diego’s Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, an adviser to the Clinton administration, recently published the results of what may be the largest and most comprehensive analysis yet done of the effect of insurance on mortality. He used a sample of more than 600,000, and controlled not only for the standard factors, but for how long the subjects went without insurance, whether their disease was particularly amenable to early intervention, and even whether they lived in a mobile home. In test after test, he found no significantly elevated risk of death among the uninsured.

Emphasis added. Highly telling that the left plays up deaths when their own studies say it's not so...

44 posted on 02/12/2010 8:48:20 AM PST by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the Sting of Truth is the defense of the indefensible)
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To: SeekAndFind

If you look at the stats for the number of people hospitals kill by giving patients the wrong meds or by performing unnecessary or improper procedures, its possible that more lives are saved than lost by being uninsured.


45 posted on 02/12/2010 8:48:31 AM PST by Busywhiskers ("Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy" -Dan Gable)
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To: a fool in paradise
It's against the law for an ER to refuse treatment.

There are two people in my home town who have no insurance and both have been in Methodist Hospital in the Houston Medical Center for over a month each and haven't paid a dime. They aren't charged for meds after being discharged.

I don't know anybody who has died--or not gotten the best treatment available.

We all know that evil insurance companies are charged more to help pay for the freebies.

46 posted on 02/12/2010 8:49:16 AM PST by lonestar (Obama and his czars have turned Bush's "mess" into a national crisis!)
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To: PugetSoundSoldier
And here's the source study from April 2009, back when the left was crying about deaths from no insurance:

Health Insurance Coverage and Mortality Revisited

47 posted on 02/12/2010 8:50:42 AM PST by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the Sting of Truth is the defense of the indefensible)
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To: rhombus
A bum dies in the street. Did he die because was uninsured?

He died from being unemployed. Democrat policies are killing jobs, and with a job he would have maintained his self dignity and personal well-being.

Democrats are guilty of policies that are killing innocent Americans. That's un-American.

48 posted on 02/12/2010 8:52:01 AM PST by Nonstatist
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To: a fool in paradise
My girlfriend is employed by a large, international biopharm company, and she has what one would call a “Cadillac” HC plan.

She broke her knee skiing last Friday and still has not been authorized to get an MRI on that knee. She has spend hours calling and emailing for authorization to no avail. The situation is completely unacceptable.

The HC company is Cigna, and they f*cking suck!

49 posted on 02/12/2010 8:57:31 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (Camelot sleeps with the fishes!)
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To: SeekAndFind
The answer of course, is none. On no death certificate will one find Death caused by lack of medical insurance listed as the official cause.
50 posted on 02/12/2010 9:05:49 AM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: SeekAndFind

The problem is that the lack of health care insurance does not translate into lack of quality health care; ask anyone who works in an emergency room if lack of insurance equals lack of health care.


51 posted on 02/12/2010 9:08:39 AM PST by Spok (Free Range Republican)
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To: SeekAndFind

health insurance <> health


52 posted on 02/12/2010 9:11:33 AM PST by JohnBrowdie (http://forum.stink-eye.net)
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To: babble-on

Just today I passed on the street four dying people lying barely moving, 2 men and 2 women.
I asked them what happened...they all “ said, “ I had no health insurance’.
I then asked if I could have their cell phones, watches and car keys since they no longer needed them.

At that they got up and ran away.


53 posted on 02/12/2010 9:29:17 AM PST by Duffboy
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To: GOPsterinMA

We’ve seen a call to cancer screen now 10 years later in life and “every other year”.

Now I see a call to limit the number of x-rays, MRIs, etc.

The powers that be are already trying to ration coverage.


54 posted on 02/12/2010 9:31:30 AM PST by a fool in paradise ("like it or not, we have to have a financial system that is healthy and functioning" Obama 2/4/2010)
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To: Sgt_Schultze
On no death certificate will one find Death caused by lack of medical insurance listed as the official cause.

No but everyone knows that Clarence Gatemouth Brown ELECTED to forgo his cancer treatment to die at home smoking instead. But that was not a lack of insurance or a refusal of service (to him).

55 posted on 02/12/2010 9:32:55 AM PST by a fool in paradise ("like it or not, we have to have a financial system that is healthy and functioning" Obama 2/4/2010)
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To: kcvl
People can not be refused emergency care. No law says a disease, illness, or other health issues must be treated, at least not until it is a matter for the emergency room.

Plenty of people can't afford health insurance or health care.

Part of the problem is the more government gets involved the more expensive it is. That goes for anything the gov't gets involved in (education, housing etc)

Another part of the problem is most people don't pay for their insurance or care, at least not totally. The tab is picked up by someone else (employer, gov't).

Too many people have their heads stuck in the sand on health reform. It isn't the disaster the left makes it out to be but neither is it all sunshine and lollipops like those on the right think it is.

56 posted on 02/12/2010 9:42:29 AM PST by NEPA (Give me liberty, not debt)
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To: babble-on

I can think of three people makes me want to have a your time is up button.


57 posted on 02/12/2010 9:45:39 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: SeekAndFind

“The issue is the hardworking family that’s trying its darn best to make ends meet but still cannot afford to pay for healthcare if and when someone gets horribly sick.”

I suspect that you are talking about a normal American family. You know, the ones that have 2 versions of video games, drink lattes every day, can’t wait to get the new i-pod, take a couple of vacations every year, drive new cars and eat out 4 times a week. You’re concerned about these families, right?

Yet, as I have been busting my hump for 3 years to become debt free, build an emergency fund and sign up for an HSA with a high deductible, now I’m supposed to feel responsible for the normal family.

Keep your laws off my BODY.


58 posted on 02/12/2010 9:52:57 AM PST by CSM (The only reason a conservative should reach across the aisle is to slap a little sense into a lib!)
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To: SeekAndFind
There has never been a SINGLE person "die from lack of health insurance."

Not one. Ever.

People die from disease, old age or trauma.

I entirely REJECT this leftist paradigm of "If you deny me what might have saved me, then the result is YOUR FAULT!" The article's title begins from that viewpoint, and is therefore flawed from the start.

59 posted on 02/12/2010 9:58:07 AM PST by TChris ("Hello", the politician lied.)
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To: SeekAndFind

First of all everyone will die someday so it is a little disingenous to imply that insurance had much to do with it at all. I’d bet that far more people in a year die with insurace then do without! There is no way to know whether someone who does not have insurance and dies would’ve had the same thing happen even if they had insurance and since it is illegal to turn anyone away from an emergency room then it is the person’s fault if they didn’t seek medical attention.


60 posted on 02/12/2010 10:13:16 AM PST by chris_bdba
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