The number of uninsured Americans reached 47 million in 2006, and it continues to rise. For many of the uninsured, the lack of health insurance has dire consequences. The uninsured face medical debt, often go without necessary care, and even die prematurely.
In 2002, the Institute of Medicine released a groundbreaking report, Care without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late, which estimated that, nationwide, 18,000 adults between the ages of 25 and 64 died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance. Subsequently, The Urban Institute estimated that at least 22,000 adults in the same age group died in 2006 because they did not have health insurance.
To find out what this means for people across the nation, Families USA has generated the first-ever state-level estimates of the number of deaths due to lack of health insurance. Our estimates are based on both the Institute of Medicine and The Urban Institute method-ologies applied to state-level data.
In 2006, there were more than 19,190,000 people between the ages of 25 and 64 living in California. Of those, 22.4 percent were uninsured. Uninsured Californians are sicker and die sooner than their insured counterparts.
Working-age people without health insurance die sooner
- Families USA estimates that more than eight working-age Californians die each day due to lack of health insurance (approximately 3,100 people in 2006).
- Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25
and 64 in California who died because they did not have health insurance was
nearly 19,900.
- Across the United States, in 2006, twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as died from homicide.
The uninsured are less likely to have a usual source of care outside of the emergency room.
- Uninsured Americans are up to four times less likely to have a regular source of care than the insured.
The uninsured often go without screenings and preventive care.
- Uninsured adults are more than 30 percent less likely than insured adults to have had a checkup in the past year.
- Uninsured adults are more likely to be diagnosed with a disease in an advanced stage. For example, uninsured women are substantially more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer than women with private insurance.
The uninsured often delay or forgo needed medical care.
- Uninsured Americans are up to three times more likely to report having problems getting needed medical care.
- Uninsured adults are more than three times as likely as insured adults to delay seeking medical care (47 percent versus 15 percent).
Uninsured Americans are sicker and die earlier than those who have insurance.
- Uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with private health insurance.
- Uninsured Americans between 55 and 64 years of age are at much greater risk of premature death than their insured counterparts. This makes uninsurance the third leading cause of death for the near-elderly, following heart disease and
cancer.
The uninsured pay more for medical care.
- Uninsured patients are unable to negotiate the discounts on hospital and doctor charges that insurance companies do. As a result, uninsured patients are often charged more than 2.5 times what insured patients are charged for hospital
services.
- Three out of five uninsured adults (60 percent) under the age of 65 reported having problems with medical bills.
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