Study: Medicare Patients, Uninsured More Likely to Die from Trauma
Nov. 17, 2009 – A recent study conducted by Harvard University researchers indicates Medicare patients stand a 56 percent greater chance of dying from traumatic injuries and the uninsured an 80 percent greater chance than their counterparts with traditional health insurance coverage.
Focusing on people suffering “unintentional injuries,” Harvard University researchers found auto accidents the number-one cause of unintentional injuries. Information on 2.7 million trauma patients was obtained from the National Trauma Data Bank for the years 2002 through 2006. Researchers then compared patients based on their age, race, sex, how they were injured and to what extent. Results then were compared based on the reported insurance status of patients.
“Unintentional injuries” rank among top 10 causes of death for every age group in the United States and is the top cause of death for Americans under age 44, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most common unintentional injuries are caused by vehicular accidents.
Results showed Medicare patients were 56 percent more likely to die from traumatic injuries than their counterparts, and people without health insurance coverage of any kind were 80 percent more likely to die after suffering traumatic injuries than those with health insurance coverage.
While significant differences seem to arise based on whether or not a patient had health insurance coverage, researchers acknowledge no direct correlation can be made between insurance status and survivability. In most cases, injury severity was the deciding factor.
Researchers speculated the severity of trauma rather than access to care was the primary reason people were more likely to die than others. Among young adults, gunshot wounds as well as auto accidents ranked among the top causes of traumatic injury. Because young adults are more likely to have no health insurance than older adults and they on average suffer much more life-threatening injuries, the severity of injuries suffered rather than access to health insurance is the main reason youth die more often from traumatic injuries, according to the Harvard University research team.
Among older Americans receiving treatment through Medicare, the higher mortality rate due to traumatic injuries likely stems from a greater likelihood of suffering from long-term, more debilitating illnesses and injuries, according to researchers.
While death rates from traumatic events among younger and older Americans without health insurance coverage are more readily explained, researchers suggest middle-age Americans without health insurance coverage tend to suffer more than their insured counterparts and die more often due to delays in obtaining medical care, lapses in treatments and other causes.
The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 ensures people seeking treatment at hospital emergency rooms are treated regardless of whether or not they have health insurance coverage. But when uninsured individuals suffer a traumatic injury, they often have complicating conditions that increases odds of dying from a traumatic injury, several medical professionals contend.
Opinion: Biased Study Claims 2,266 Uninsured U.S. Veterans Died in 2008
Nov. 11, 2009 – Results of a new Harvard University study conducted by a group advocating a national health care plan and elimination of private health insurance suggest thousands of U.S. military veterans died in 2008 due to a lack of health care services.
The study claims 2,266 U.S. veterans lacking health insurance and ineligible for care through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs likely died in 2008 due to a lack of health care. Harvard University researchers advocating a national public health plan used Census Bureau polling data indicating about 1.46 million veterans had no health insurance in 2008.
Researchers then applied results from an earlier study they had conducted estimating Americans without health insurance stand a 40 percent greater chance of dying than their counterparts who have health insurance. When applying their prior 40 percent greater mortality rate estimate to the estimated 1.46 million veterans without health insurance, researchers concluded 2,266 veterans died because they could not get health care in 2008.
Conducted by proponents of a national health care plan, the study concludes a lack of health care killed thousands of military veterans lacking health insurance last year, but it’s methodology casts doubt on researchers’ conclusions.
Potential research bias aside, the researchers applied general estimates of a much larger population to a specific and much smaller subset, which means alternative explanations have not been eliminated. One of the first principles of academic research requires an elimination of alternative explanations, such as obesity, genetic dispositions and other potential variables, in order to isolate a specific variable – such as a lack of health insurance.
Not every subset population suffers the same fate. Some populations are more prone to dying from swine flu or West Nile disease than others, for example. And ailments can vary greatly based on geographic area, such as an unusually high incidence of cancer among residents of the former Love Canal community in New York.
Military veterans generally suffer from ailments quite different than the general population, according to the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. Among long-term ailments more likely to be suffered by veterans than the general population are amputations, recovering head injuries, prior exposure to environmental hazards, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.
Because researchers knowingly applied a general finding to a specific subset without eliminating alternative explanations, they knowingly or otherwise engaged in a deceptive form of research clearly aimed at a specific outcome – creating a single-payer health care system and elimination of private health insurance plans. The study’s lead authors, Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler, are highly active members of the non-profit Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates eliminating private health insurance plans in favor of a government-run, single-payer system. Woolhandler helped found the organization, and Himmelstein has been its national spokesman for several years.
Given the inherent flaws in the study’s methodology combined with the strong likelihood of research bias, while an interesting read, no valid conclusions can be drawn from the study by Himmelstein and Woolhandler.
(Opinion by Mike Heuer, a former news reporter, political writer and holder of a master’s degree in marketing-based public relations from Michigan State University)