• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Lack of Medical Insurance Killing 18,000 Americans a Year, Local Physician Says

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 May 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Dann Denny, Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind.

May 2--When Davin O'Connor amassed $7,500 worth of medical bills at Bloomington Hospital, he had to take out a loan to pay off his debt.

That's because the 38-year-old construction worker is among an estimated 46 million Americans with no health insurance.

"It's tough," he said. "I don't have a personal doctor, so if I get sick I usually just buy over-the-counter medications and tough it out. If that doesn't work, I go to Promptcare or the emergency room."

Because his employer does not offer health insurance, O'Connor has decided to accept a job as a painter for a Bloomington retirement community.

"The main reason I'm making the switch is because the retirement community will offer me health insurance," he said. "The money is not as good, but the health benefits will be worth it to me in the long run."

Dr. Rob Stone bristles when he hears people say uninsured Americans like O'Connor are shiftless bums -- undeserving of coverage.

"A solid 50 percent of the people who don't have health insurance are employed, some at more than one job," said Stone, an emergency department physician at Bloomington Hospital and medical director of the hospital's Community Health Access Program. "They can't get insurance either because their employer doesn't offer it, or they can't afford their share of the premiums."

Stone says it's a national travesty that -- according to the Institute of Medicine, an advisory group that's part of the National Academies of Science in Washington, D.C. -- an estimated 18,000 people in the U.S. die every year because they have no health insurance.

"The statistics are clear," Stone said. "Those without health insurance live sicker and die younger."

Stone says the notion that uninsured people will be cared for by a safety net is a myth.

"There is a safety net," he said. "But it's full of holes."

Stone said many people with no health insurance -- and who don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare -- receive primary care at the hospital's CHAP clinic.

"They also come to the hospital's emergency room for primary care," he said. "About 15 to 20 percent of the people we see in the ER are there because they have no other source of medical care."

Another myth, Stone said, is that the country does not have enough money to cover the uninsured.

"We spend twice as much per capita on health care than other industrialized countries," he said. "That's because we have a crazy quilt of insurance coverages and private and government programs, creating incredible administrative overhead costs."

He said that studies by the Congressional Budget Office and General Accounting Office conclude that if the U.S. ran its health-care system as efficiently as Canada's system, there would be enough money to provide every American citizen with health coverage.

Stone favors a national, government-sponsored, universal health plan that would cover every U.S. citizen.

"This would not be socialized medicine like they have in Great Britain, where doctors and nurses are employees of the government," he said. "This would be national health insurance, where the government supplies the insurance but doctors and nurses are private and independent."

He said a universal health plan would work like Medicare does now, except it would cover all citizens rather than just the elderly and disabled.

Stone said because Congress does not seem interested in a national universal health plan, he favors a statewide universal health plan.

"Seventeen states have legislation pending for universal coverage," he said, adding that a group called Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan is working to develop and promote a universal coverage bill that will be introduced to the state legislature this January.

"The bill would free employers from providing private health insurance to their employees but require them to pay a payroll tax," he said. "Employers who are already providing insurance would end up paying less."

Stone said employees would pay a little more in state income taxes, but would save money by no longer having to pay premiums for their health insurance.

Dr. Rob Stone has a passion for the 46 million uninsured Americans. He feels the federal government should sponsor a universal health plan that would cover every U.S. citizen. In the meantime, he and an organization he works with plan to introduce a bill to the Indiana state legislature calling for a statewide universal health plan.

HEALTH-CARE FACTS:

-- 46 million Americans, 16 percent of the U.S. population, are uninsured.

-- 25 percent of uninsured Americans are children.

-- Every day 75 people in Indiana file bankruptcy because of unpayable medical bills.

-- Overall, the World Health Organization ranks the U.S. health-care system 37th in the world, just behind Costa Rica.

-- In life expectancy, the U.S. ranks 27th in the world, just behind the Island of Barbados.

-- In infant mortality per 1,000 births, the U.S. ranks 37th in the world, behind Cuba and Taiwan.

-- Canadian doctors perform a higher per capita number of kidney transplants and heart/lung transplants than American doctors.

Source: Dr. Rob Stone, Bloomington Hospital emergency physician

-----

To see more of the Herald-Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.hoosiertimes.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Herald-Times

More News in this Category