One of the frequent rebuttals deployed against advocates of universal health care is that, in fact, we do have universal care, it just occurs in emergency rooms. This is true. But even there, being uninsured matters. According to a new report, among hospitalized children, the uninsured are twice as likely to die from their injuries as children with insurance. And this isn't some unrelated effect: The data in the report was adjusted to account for age, health, severity of injury, etc. The difference is that the uninsured get worse care, for less time, and wait longer to be treated. And it's not just children:
The Families USA findings are consistent with others showing the medical implications of living without health insurance. Studies by the Institute of Medicine, the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine and the Commonwealth Fund have shown higher death rates among the uninsured. The Institute of Medicine and the Center for Studying Health System Change found evidence of lesser treatment and fewer surgeries in hospitals, but children were not studied separately.
None of this, of course, is a surprise. But sometimes it's worth remembering that the uninsured aren't simply a fascinating policy problem. They are people, many of them are children, and because they are unlucky enough to lack parents with health coverage, they die from conditions that insured kids survive.