How many Americans die each year because they have no health care?

Question

Fifty million Americans without health care is a national disgrace.

ONLY PUBLIC HOSPITALS HAVE TO TREAT YOU AND THEY CHARGE YOU FOR THE CARE. THIS MEANS THEY WILL OWN YOUR HOME IF YOU HAVE NO HEALTH CARE>

Lauren R - you're 100% correct!

Answer 1

I don't know the numbers but yea it's a disgrace, especially among the working poor. I bet millions and millions die unnecessarily! I live in Appalachia, and that's why you see so many people out here applying for SSI and not working...health coverage. Emergency room visits do NOT replace good, total health care!! And I bet 50 million is a vast understatement too. Know what's terrible? Having no dental care--periodontal disease is the #1 most underrecognized epidemic in our country, and leads to so many of the other problems that the uninsured have to deal with, such as heart problems. Know what's almost worse? Is just thinking about the billions our country spends on SSI, knowing how much of that misery and illness could have been prevented in the first place, simply with preventative health and dental care!!!!! Like pennies on the dollar...boy, are we dumb, or what.

Answer 2

We don't know how many die because a significant number of early deaths are the result of missing years of annual checkups. In my case I went every year. I found out I had high cholesterol...I started taking Lipitor and I went from a score of 250 to 150....I suspect that that bought me several more years of healthy life. Another year went by and I found out I had prostate cancer....I had no idea I had it as there really are no symtoms...until there are and then it's too late. I had immediate surgery and 11 years later, I'm still alive. Without health insurance I'd have missed that window. Second, and of almost equal importance is the fact that my insurance has kept me from going deep into debt...my cholsterol med cost me only $25.00 for a three month supply....good insurance. At retail the same pills would cost over $400 for the same number of pills. Can you imagine most working people coming up with that kind of cash? Cancer surgery and the entire year of dealing with radiation and all the rest of it probably would have cost several hundred thousand, and without insurance it would have had to be cash up front. Who has that kind of money? The only solution to this for most people is a single payer universal HEALTH INSURANCE plan for all americans. Health insurance is NOT HEALTH CARE, no matter what the right wing talk show bozo say. Care is care and insurance is insurance and we could do easily put together a plan that would cost less and do more. As long as the GOP reactionaries have a say, that won't happen. Too bad, because for all their talk about being pro life they would have let me die a miserable death. UNIVERSAL HEALTH INSURANCE ....don't leave home without it!

Answer 3

It kind of makes me sick to my stomach seeing all the ignorant people thinking that no one dies because of lack of health insurance....Yeah, there is a myth that the hospitals can not refuse service for those in need, when they don't have the insurance...but the hospital only has to stabilize you enough that you can go home....meaning they will not provide the same service for those with insurance verse those without it....So all the people on their death bed ...so to speak, get stabilized to go home and die in their own beds hours...days...weeks...months...later... I'm saddened by the fact that not more Americans have any sympathy for other less fortunate people in this country.....What ever happened to help thy neighbor....All the religious people preach that crap, but when it comes to actually applying it in the real world and not just those in your church...then you all basically say..."f**k those people...they can go to the emergency room and get help....they are also the ones to say..."why should I pay for someone elses health care"....well that's just plan ol bullsh*t....if we all paid a little more in taxes to be covered, we would actually save a sh*t load of money.....duh

Answer 4

the real question is about "preventive care"... how many people die because they wait to go to the doctor until it's too late, because they can't afford it...

and that's for people with health insurance too, because it's still often a lot of money... especially with higher deductibles...

how many billions are wasted and lives lost treating advanced cases that could have been easily treated a month prior?

and emergency rooms are only for serious care...

Answer 5

Far more than statistics could begin to show. Health care includes preventative care. You may decide to see a doctor for something and he/she may notice something else while you are there.

Answer 6

Everyone is guarenteed medical care whether they can pay or not; it's the law. Go into any hospital emergency room with a paper cut and they have to treat you, which is why illegal aliens get free health care. They have the best of both situations: the law requires hospitals to treat them, and since they're illegal there's no way to make them pay.

Answer 7

Sure about those figures?
How to explain the people who've resigned themselves to living and perishing because they have an urge to drink and reside under a bridge?
Just so it's clear--no person is refused medical care in America.

Answer 8

That number equals 1/6 of our total population. Are you sure you don't want to revise it? Health care is only as far away as the nearest emergency room. You are a liar.

Answer 9

No one dies from lack of healthcare. Fact is NO hospital can refuse service to a person in need.

You are wrong, EVERY hospital MUST provide life and death care and, no hospital can take your home for debt owned.

Answer 10

No one dies in this country from lack of health care. It is illegal for any hospital to deny healthcare to someone due to their lack of income and/or insurance in a life or death situation.