Dear citizens, Here is a link in the NYT which describes a longitudinal study of CDC mortality data done at Harvard. I think this reflects a much better assessment of the deaths caused by a total lack of health insurance; 45,000 American deaths per year. The previously cited number of 18000 was obviously flawed.
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/harvard-medical-study-links-lack-of-insurance-to-45000-us-deaths-a-year/ However, these numbers still do not account for total deaths caused by our profiteering health insurance industry. Because of the number of incomplete insurance packages and high deductibles for standard health monitoring procedures, deaths caused by skipped examinations are not counted as deaths caused by corporate profits. As an example, consider colon cancer. When at risk people are properly screened based on family history or screened at appropriate ages, this cancer (also linked to the American diet of corporate food) can be caught and effectively treated early. Yet it is a leading cause of cancer deaths in America. When working people struggling to cover themselves against a catastrophe are asked to pay hundreds or a thousand dollars for simple screening procedures, how many people skip these or put them off? These "insured" people who die 5 years after skipping that procedure are not counted as deaths caused by health insurance profits. During their last years of extreme suffering and expensive treatments, and after they are dropped from the insurance companies; these victims are told that their reluctance to get routine screening was the cause of their plight. How many people living pay check to pay check can pull out a $1000-1200 for a routine colonoscopy? Had they known they would have stage 3 or 4 cancer when they first get symptoms, they may have done some robberies on the side. But after they are handed over to die at the expense of the taxpayers, their eventual deaths are counted as general compliance failures and not deaths caused by health insurance profits. My guess is that the true number of yearly deaths from the corporate health insurance profit system to be about double the number of the Harvard study. Medicare for all, NOW! Glenn ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
