The often repeated stat that 18,000 Americans die every year from lack of insurance is not valid, says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis. His old post rounding up the reasons why is worth reading, since this one makes into the headlines again and again, no matter how many times it is debunked. Highlights:
- The authors of the study did not establish that anybody, anywhere, died of any cause whatsoever because of a lack of health insurance.
- The researchers interviewed the uninsured only once — and never saw them again. A decade later, the researchers assumed the participants were still uninsured and, if they died in the interim, lack of insurance is blamed as one of the causes. Yet, like unemployment, uninsurance happens to many people for short periods of time. Most people who are uninsured regain insurance within one year. The authors of the study did not track what happened to the insurance status of the subjects over the decade examined, what medical care they received or even the causes of their deaths.
- They found that the involuntarily uninsured (low-income people) were only 3% more likely to die over a 14-year period than those with health insurance. There was no statistically significant effect on the “voluntarily uninsured” (higher-income people).
- People enrolled in Medicaid have a much higher mortality rate than the uninsured. In other words, Medicaid enrollment reduces life expectancy rather than increasing it!
