Not having Illinois medical insurance can be a life and death situation. While the health insurance reform bill dangles, more data supports the potential for a higher death toll among the uninsured. From developing cancer, heart disease to suffering from a traumatic injury, evidence portends that being without Illinois medical insurance is merely a fatal proposition.
In a recently published clinical trial, 1231 patients, suffering from head or neck cancers, were followed from 1998 through 2007 at the Pittsburgh Medical Center. Researchers compared the survival rate of patients, who had health insurance with the uninsured. Out of 128 subjects, who did not have health insurance or were on Medicaid, 50 percent passed away. In contrast, only 22 percent of the patients with insurance perished.
Among traumatic injury sufferers, similar death discrepancies were notable. A group of researchers of Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School compiled statistics from the National Trauma Data Bank, which has a database of 2.7 million patients admitted to trauma centers throughout the United States. Evaluating patient admissions from 2002 and 2006, researchers reviewed 687,091 adult medical records. The findings linked a substantial correlation between the mortality rates of the uninsured patient opposed to the insured. Researchers endeavored to revise the data to delete the implications of age, race and gender; however, the statistics illustrated the same high death rate among the uninsured. Even more perturbing, Medicare subscribers’ survival rates were comparable to patients, who had a private health insurance policy.
Researchers compared the mortality rate of 29,829 patients admitted at the Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma and Critical Care, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from 1998 to 2005. Uninsured patients accounted for 68 percent of the patients. Again, the data among the non-insured younger, less severely injured had a higher death rate than the insured counterparts.
Although hospitals initiate treatment, it is unclear whether the disparity in medical care takes place during hospitalization. Despite the lack of research evaluating the mortality rate of the uninsured to individuals with Illinois medical insurance, the Centers for Disease Control has data indicating of Illinoisans not having Illinois medical insurance has been on the rise for more than a decade.
Meanwhile, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States. From 1996-2006,the American Heart Association noticed a 33 percent rise in cardiovascular inpatient operations. With close to 15 percent of the Illinois population not having Illinois medical insurance coupled with a high mortality rate of the uninsured, and the emerging number of cardiovascular disease diagnoses, a lack of health coverage forecasts a detrimental outcome.
Illinois medical insurance consultant, Michael Novelli asserts “Despite the fact that cancer and heart disease are not preventable, people with medical coverage are more likely to have an earlier diagnosis, allowing for better medical care. So many managed care Illinois medical insurance plans are economical enough to slow down additional medical casualties.
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