Fatally Uninsured

A Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance study finds that the deaths of nearly 45,000 Americans each year was associated with a lack of health insurance coverage. That is a number that is 10 times the number of U. S troops killed in the Iraq War -- since it began in March 2003! It is greater than the number of Americans killed in traffic accidents in all 50 states in a calendar year. It is a tragedy that the wealthiest country in the world, the most powerful nation on the Earth, would allow this to happen to its people. It is far past the time when we need to pass the health reform legislation that will help all Americans get the healthcare coverage that we all need.

We will have spent over three trillion dollars fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, because 3,497 Americans we killed by terrorists on September 11, 2001. Yet we allow almost 13 times that number to die every year because of the commercial actions of insurance companies who deny coverage, enforce exclusions from coverage for pre-existing conditions, rescind policies of beneficiaries who have been paying health premiums, and price healthcare out of reach for more American families. We must act now to pass health reform, so we can end these abusive practices and this tragic loss of American lives!