Mortality rate will likely increase under Senate healthcare bill

• Main Author: Robbins RA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arizona Thoracic Society 2017-06-01
• Series: Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care
• Subjects: Woolhandler S; Himmelstein D; health insurance; mortality; Congressional Budget Office; CBO; Better Care Reconciliation Act; Senate; tax cut; death
• Online Access: http://www.swjpcc.com/news/2017/6/27/mortality-rate-will-likely-increase-under-senate-healthcare.html

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. Today (6/27/17) an article was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein from New York University on the effects of health insurance on mortality (1). The article has special significance because of pending healthcare legislation in the Senate. The Annals article concludes that the odds of dying among the insured relative to the uninsured is 0.71 to 0.97. However, the authors acknowledge that this is a very difficult study to conduct because of the nonrandomized, observational nature of the studies and lack of a strict separation between covered and uncovered Americans. For example, many people cycle in and out of insurance diluting differences between groups. Of course, what is needed is a randomized trial, and surprisingly, one does exist which is discussed in the Annals article (1,2). In 2008, Oregon initiated a limited expansion of its Medicaid program for about 6,000 poor, able-bodied, uninsured …