How Does Lack Of Insurance Affect Death Rates?

See This Is Why We Need Obamacare by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF of the NY Times. Excerpt:

"But how about showing empathy also for a far larger and more desperate group: The nearly 50 million Americans without insurance who play health care Russian roulette as a result. FamiliesUSA, a health care advocacy group that supports Obamacare, estimated last year that an American dies every 20 minutes for lack of insurance."

At 1 every 20 minutes, that is 26,280 a year. If we divide that by 50,000,000 we get 0.0005256. Per 100,000 that is 52.56. That is the death rate for people who lack insurance. What is it per 100,000 for the whole country? Here is a stat from the CDC for 2010

"Death rate: 799.5 deaths per 100,000 population"

So the overall death rate is about 15 times higher for the average American than it is for people without insurance. Maybe this has to do with age. Younger people are less likely to die and therefore less likely to buy insurance.

Also, the CDC shows that the two leading causes of death, by far, are cancer and hearth disease.

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

• Heart disease: 597,689
• Cancer: 574,743
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 138,080
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 129,476
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 120,859
• Alzheimer's disease: 83,494
• Diabetes: 69,071
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,476
• Influenza and Pneumonia: 50,097
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 38,364

80 percent of heart disease and 40 percent of cancers could be prevented with a healthy diet and lifestyle. See Something More Effective Than Government Health Care