Lack of insurance causes health scare

A recent study conducted by Harvard Medical School indicated some dire straits in our healthcare system. The study showed that as many as 45,000 deaths each year in the United States can be tied to a lack of health insurance coverage. Such high numbers are unbelievable in such an industrialized country. 45,000 thousand lives lost due to lack of health insurance coverage is a toll greater than those who die each year from kidney disease and terrorism combined!

How can such an atrocity happen in a country as great as America?

Well, one can easily point to such high premiums that individuals and families in America pay. The average cost of a family policy offered by employers is $13,375 in 2009, which is up 5 percent from 2008.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust survey, it was also found that wages rose only 3 percent over that period as well. Such a sharp rise in prices for health insurance plans and premiums compounded with wages not rising fast enough makes for a horrible situation for any American.

Currently, there are as many as 30 to 40 million Americans without health insurance coverage. When you add that up with massive job losses, you get a situation where millions of Americans will lose their insurance coverage as the unemployment rate rises.

There have been at least 5 millions job losses since August which means that many Americans will have no way to pay for their highly expensive health insurance which will continue to rise. Something must be done.

According to another study published in the November issue of Archives for Surgery, uninsured patients with traumatic injuries were almost twice as likely to die as similarly injured patients in the emergency room.

Researchers couldn't determine why such a huge disparity occurs, only that the uninsured may experience more delays in treatment and attention due to their lack of coverage.

The study also found that the uninsured were 80 percent more likely to die than those with insurance - even low-income patients insured by the government's Medicaid program fared better. In the study, most patients survived the injuries. Patients with insurance had a death rate of 3.3 percent. Patients without insurance, however, had a death rate of 5.7 percent. How can that be?

There have been proposals on both sides of the political spectrum to solve the problem, and each side is bickering and clashing over how to solve it. The more important issue, however, is that reform happens. The United States is ranked 37th in health care according to the World Health Organization.

We rank behind countries like Saudi Arabia, Colombia, and even Cyprus. We rank number one, however, in how much we spend on healthcare.

We spend the most in the world on our healthcare system but rank 37th. Something in that isn't right.

It is up to us, the people, to find ways to solve this serious issue.

Contact your congressman, senator, or state representative and demand that reform is done. 45,000 Americans dying each year due to lack of health insurance is something we as Americans cannot accept. We must solve this issue. Lives are at stake.