Apparently Sen. Harry Reid still can't quite tell the difference between truth and lie, fact and fiction. Some friends of ours over at TakeBackMedicine.com decided to do a bit of "Fact Check" on Harry's pronouncement "45,000 people die every year in U.S. From lack of insurance."
Seems that 45,000 number gets batted around a lot so it just felt right to try and check it out . . . wait for it . . . . wait for it . . .. .
STATEMENT:
Sen. Harry Reid:
"45,000 people die every year in U.S. from lack of insurance."
THE FACTS:
"IOM guesstimates that 18,000 people a year die from lack of health insurance coverage. Such a number is handy for media sound bites, but has no factual basis. The Urban Institute's Hadley acknowledges that these "observational studies... cannot answer the question of whether health insurance directly affects health outcomes.
To the extent that having insurance coverage results in better health care, the Medicaid population should be doing very well. To the extent income is the primary determinant, people on Medicaid should be doing quite poorly. Which proves to be true? In 61 percent of the cases (31 studies) that identify the three populations (privately insured, uninsured and on Medicaid), Medicaid recipients appear to do about as badly or worse than the uninsured in receiving health care services or maintaining good health.
If insurance coverage is the primary determinant in getting adequate health care, people on Medicaid should be at the head of the line for good outcomes. But they are not. In fact, in many cases, they have worse outcomes than do people with no insurance at all. This is consistent with other available information that income is a better predictor of health than is insurance status." writes Greg Scandlen.
Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director of AAPS writes that "In the actual report, the number 18,000 occurs only once, in Appendix D, with a description of the convoluted method for calculating it-extrapolating from one questionable estimate from one study."
Both Scandlen and Orient point out that this number is not even based on any original research, but compiled from previous studies, with no vetting of that methodology. These identify a correlation between lack of insurance and poor health, but cannot determine whether one is caused by the other, or both are caused by some other factor.
Conclusions:
Sometimes people die, even with health insurance.
And "health insurance" provides no actual medical care or "saves lives." Doctors and other professional do.
There is no demonstrated causal relationship between "insurance" and "death."
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sources:
http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00369
