On November 19, 2003, as a visiting professor of law at UNC School of Law in ChapeI Hill, I wrote an op-ed for the Raleigh News & Observer which began: “The National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine recently estimated that approximately 18,000 people in the United States die every year because they do not have health insurance. This figure is startling by any account. In local terms, it means that America is losing an entire town the size of Chapel Hill every two and a half years. To put it another way, it is as if the human losses of Sept.11, 2001, were recurring six times a year. Yet these deaths go largely unnoticed. They are not accompanied by the collapse of colossal buildings. There are no horrific firebursts. There is no excited television commentary. For all we know from mainstream media, these victims ‘go gentle into that good night.’ But as the presidential election approaches, it is time once again for Americans to speak out — to rage against this unnecessary ‘dying of the light.’” I concluded my piece by arguing that: “politicians must not be allowed to drop the ball once again on this issue. And it is the responsibility of the media to ensure that in the coming months health care remains at the forefront of the political agenda. Urgent arguments about the right to life and the responsibility of government should not be confined to the case of a woman in a permanent vegetative state in Florida. Terri Schiavo’s case undoubtedly raises important issues. But every hour we spend discussing her case and ignoring the larger problem, two more Americans die for lack of health care.”On September 12, 2009, Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed in the New York Times drawing on similar statistics. (To read Kristof's op-ed, click here.) In the intervening period, the lot of both the insured and the uninsured had not improved. On the contrary, over the past six years the number of uninsured has steadily increased as has the financial burden of health care on the insured. Just a few days after Kristof's piece, a study in the American Journal of Public health estimated that 45,000 Americans now die every year from lack of health insurance. (For a link to the Reuter's story, click here.) Although critics of the study dispute the numbers, how many readily preventable deaths are they prepared to tolerate? In addition, it is estimated that more than two million Americans are affected by medical bankruptcy (that is, bankruptcy due to medical bills) every year and that roughly three quarters of them had health insurance when they fell ill (click here). Will 2009 bring meaningful health care reform in the U.S.? Or will legislators allow this unnecessary mortality, suffering and burden on the economy to continue? Back to Home Page |