NO SURPRISE- LACK OF INSURANCE IMPACTS HEALTH

New research shows that for people who were previously uninsured, turning 65 can actually improve their health because they begin receiving Medicare coverage, which kicks in on their 65th birthday.

A study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the health of uninsured individuals between 55 and 65 years old declined more rapidly than their counterparts with health insurance. But once both groups received Medicare coverage at age 65, the disparity in health steadily diminished. For people with diabetes and cardiovascular problems in particular, the access to treatment provided through Medicare slows, and even reverses, the sharp decline in health that begins when people forgo care that they cannot afford.

Still, the years without adequate health coverage take their toll. People who had health insurance before enrolling in Medicare remain on average healthier that people who spent much of their late fifties and early sixties without coverage. Separate research shows that the previously uninsured cost Medicare more after they enroll—they are less healthy and require more care. We know also, from their own stories, that people with disabilities often go without health care during the two years they must wait after they get their first Social Security Disability check for Medicare coverage to begin.

And in similar findings, recent studies by a government advisory group underestimated the number of Americans who die because they lack health insurance, according to a recent report by the Urban Institute.

According to the recently released study, Uninsured and Dying Because of It, estimates by the Institute of Medicine that 18,000 Americans died in 2001 due to a lack of health care coverage may be off by as much as 20 percent. The Urban Institute instead estimates that 21,000 people died in 2001 because they lacked health insurance, amounting to one death every 24 minutes. Between 2000 and 2006, the Urban Institute believes that 165,000 people died because they were uninsured.

Researchers at both the Institute of Medicine and the Urban Institute say Americans face an average 25 percent increase in the likelihood of death when uninsured.

-Adapted from: “Hang In There” e-mail from Asclepios: Your Weekly Medicare Consumer Advocacy Update, January 3, 2008 • Volume 8, Issue 1, Medicare Rights Center, and Medicare Watch, A Biweekly Electronic Newsletter Of The Medicare Rights Center, Vol. 11, No. 2: January 22, 2008.

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