According to a grim study by Families USA, the estimated 47 million people in the United States who lack health insurance are suffering from a life-threatening condition.
The Institute of Medicine estimated that 18,000 people in the United States died in 2000 because they lacked insurance. A study by the Urban Institute suggested the danger was increasing, showing that 22,000 non-insured adults died unnecessarily in 2006.
The Families USA study notes that more than seven uninsured working-age adults die every day in Texas. In Illinois, 960 uninsured people died in 2006, and nearly 9,900 New Yorkers between 25 and 64 years old died between 2000 and 2006.
As Cuba, the former USSR and other socialist countries have shown, there is an alternative. But in the United States, the uninsured may not see doctor until it is too late for treatment. In the meantime, the death toll continues to rise.
