THE UNINSURED: New Study Finds Hazards
A study released yesterday by the American College of Physicians- American Society of Internal Medicine asserts that lack of adequate health care poses as great a risk to health as other well-known dangers such as smoking, alcoholism or not wearing a seat belt. The report shows rising numbers of uninsured men, women and children. It also tackles the "myth" that the uninsured are faced only with "mere inconvenience." The report shows that uninsured Americans have a "generally higher mortality" rate and a "specifically higher in-hospital mortality" rate. Also, the study finds that uninsured pregnant women tend to have sicker babies and those individuals with undetected hypertension usually fall victim to more serious complications like stroke and heart attack. ACP-ASIM President Dr. Whitney Addington said, "Uninsured Americans tend to live sicker and die earlier than insured Americans. We hope this report serves as a wake-up call for the American public that something has to be done to reduce the number of uninsured in this country." The ACP-ASIM is urging presidential and congressional candidates to design or back a plan that will ensure that all Americans have health coverage. The ACP-ASIM is spending $1 million on its "Decision 2000" campaign, which aims to commission studies, conduct polls, finance "advocacy advertising" and hold events to raise consciousness of the "health crisis" challenging the 44 million uninsured Americans. To read the entire release, click here (ACP-ASIM release, 11/30).
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