Researchers from the Harvard Medical School have found that about 45,000 deaths of working age adults per year in the U.S. are associated with a lack of health insurance. For the study’s base year, the number of deaths associated with being uninsured were higher than those for HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, prostate cancer, leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, hypertension heart disease, liver diseases, kidney disease, and homicide, and nearly the same as motor vehicle accidents.

The report found that given the link between death and lack of health insurance, better ways to provide insurance to more people and provide medical care for the uninsured must be found. Alternatives now employed such as community health centers and clinics – while valuable – still do not provide the protection of health insurance.

These findings are especially important for rural people, who have higher rates of uninsurance and in many places lack even the alternatives the study found deficient. Health reform legislation that provides more individuals and families greater options for affordable, comprehensive health insurance will help address these issues.

The Harvard report theorized that the situation may be partially due to many of the chronically ill being less likely to have a usual and continual source of medical care, something health insurance is more likely to provide. In a second report, the same researchers took a deeper look at the connection between chronic health issues and insurance.

They found that half the working age adult uninsured with diabetes or high cholesterol were unaware of their condition (only a quarter of the insured with the same conditions were unaware). Once diagnosed, hypertension and high cholesterol were more poorly controlled in the uninsured. By some measures, diabetes control was also poorer for the uninsured.

This research generated two important conclusions. One, the diagnosis and control of chronic diseases in the U.S. is substandard regardless of insurance status, but it is much worse for the uninsured. Second, these chronic conditions are common, easily treated, but lethal if not diagnosed and controlled by a prescribed treatment regime that may be unavailable to the uninsured.

Again, these findings are critical to rural people. Rural people have higher rates of these and other chronic diseases and obtain fewer preventive tests and procedures. When combined with lower rates of insurance, rural people are more likely to suffer the consequences of a lack of diagnosis, treatment, and control of chronic diseases.

Both studies highlight the bottom line of health reform that Congress has for the most part ignored. This country is beset by an epidemic of preventable and treatable chronic diseases, but prevention is too often disregarded, and diagnosis and treatment is out of reach for too many. Without change, too many people will continue to be sick and ultimately die needlessly.

For more information: contact Jon Bailey, jonb@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1013.