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Deaths from No Health Insurance Under Clinton, Bush, Obama
Based on the methodology of the Institute of Medicine, here are estimated numbers of American deaths due to lack of health insurance under three presidents. The estimation for Clinton is an approximation. If it's 22,000 per year by 2002 I'm estimating 18,000 per year under Clinton. There are no studies that I have found thus far for the Clinton years.
Clinton: (Two terms) 144,000 Americans
Bush: (two terms) 176,000 Americans
Obama: (Since Jan 20) 1,260 Americans
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Keep on truckin' sister Kali Star. Every time you put a blog out with the death numbers, I will rec'd!
(Although I might not always comment.)
February 9, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is much appreciated. Keeping the number in people's minds is the goal.
February 9, 2009 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice statistics, but what's your point?
How much would it cost to insure 18,000 people for one year?
Smoking kills 438,000 people per year, or 24 deaths for every death due to lack of insurance.
How much would it cost to ban smoking?
Where should we place our efforts?
I am just asking, I don't have the answers.
February 9, 2009 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Most smokers are not seeking assistance. Support groups to quit smoking are free. Healthcare is not free. The "uninsured" deaths are more preventable because the victims would have sought aid if they could. Most smokers do not. It's an addiction issue, to be sure, but medicine works if taken. Recovery cannot be administered, it has to be the effort of the addict. That the ration of smokers to uninsured is so significant is a tragedy. It is a tragedy that we can count them at all.
February 10, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Same point as the studies from the Urban Institute and the Institute of Medicine. The smoking issue is something I haven't thought about. Good question.
February 9, 2009 9:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your numbers don't make a whole lot of sense. You should compile them by some measurable standard, such as deaths per month. Otherwise, they're essentially meaningless. People die. Everyone's doin' it from what I hear. It's like a fad.
February 9, 2009 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Read the study upon which the numbers are based. You'll find a complete explanation here:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/star_mason/2009/02/number-of-americans-dying-each.php
It's quite the fad to be flippant and forgetful about people who die because they don't have health insurance, or so I hear.
February 10, 2009 12:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd be interested on statistics of people who become disabled because of lack of health insurance. That's the pattern I've seen in my own family. They develop conditions, such as heart attacks and strokes, that could have been prevented if they had access to health care. They make it to the emergency room on time but they're permanently disabled as a result.
Once they're sick enough that they can no longer work, all kinds of government programs kick in - Social Security disability, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. At that point, at least where I live, they have full access to all the health care they need.
Think of the money - and the productivity - that could be saved if people had insurance so they could get preventative care.
February 10, 2009 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Something else I'd like to add. My grandmother suffered the last 10 years of her life and then died as a direct result of lack of health care. My grandfather had good insurance but he died at 54 and Grandma lost her insurance. She was mentally ill and unable to work full-time. She didn't get the treatment she needed for her mental illness or her diabetes and high blood pressure because she couldn't afford it.
She died of a heart attack at age 62, shortly before she would have become eligible for Medicare.
February 10, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please accept my sympathies for the losses in your family, but also my gratitude for sharing with readers what has happened because of no access to healthcare. It would be useful to find statistics about disabilities. Perhaps someone will have an idea about where to look.
February 10, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Someone probably died from lack of health care in the time it took me to read this short diary and write this comment.
Roughly a little over 2.5 people per hour based on the bush years numbers. Think how many will die in the time this sits on the rec list here?
February 10, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. This is why we can't go mute on healthcare. It's about real people dying every hour while others keep telling them to be patient. Then they're dead. The very least we can do is keep track of these lives lost.
February 10, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
These numbers are not enough to see the entire picture. As sad as it seems, some of these people would have died even with health insurance. In addition, a portion of these folks chose not to carry insurance. As a young man, I chose to decline insurance for a couple of years because I was very healthy. The health care system certainly needs work. TORT reform and inter-state competition would make an enormous change. Let's start their before we blindly spend trillions on a DMV-style, mandatory, taxpayer-shouldered health system. Today, if you need a drivers license, your choice is to get one at the DMV, or not. Do you want a health care system despised by the doctors who can not give you a choice? What incentive will your doctor have to do a good job? And watch the number of talented college students entering med school quickly decline if Obamacare actually passes.
October 24, 2009 1:00 AM | Reply | Permalink