New Study Shows Importance of Health Insurance in US

A new study from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has suggested that patients suffering from a stroke, pneumonia or acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have a lower mortality rate if they have private health insurance . The study, conducted by Dr Omar Hasan, has been published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, and examined 154,381 hospital discharge records for American patients with the three conditions.

The hospital mortality rate for those with pneumonia was 21 per cent higher among those without private medical insurance, 49 per cent higher for those with a stroke, and 52 per cent higher for those with AMI. The finding is the latest indication of the importance of health cover in America, and follows the IOM’s 2002 estimation that 18,000 Americans died in the year 2000 because they did not have health insurance .

The study does, however, note the existence of other variables such as the time of admission, with uninsured patients likely to be admitted to hospital when they are considerably more ill, though this again can be seen as a product of delaying treatment to avoid the cost of health care .