A Preventable Cause of Death: Lack of Health Insurance

Mike Danforth died in April of colon cancer at the age of 33, but the real cause of his death was something preventable: the lack of health insurance. Mike’s mother is a friend of mine, and for the last two years she has struggled through the pain and anguish of watching her son die.

For me, Mike’s death put flesh and blood on a health care debate that has focused primarily on money and governing philosophy, and too little on people in crisis.

This country’s health care policy is killing people and we need to immediately enact universal, accessable, affordable health care as a moral human right. If we don’t,  thousands more will follow Mike to the grave. This was made clear in a study published on September 17 by researchers at the Harvard Medical School.

They concluded that 44,789 Americans died last year because they didn’t have health care, a number of deaths that exceeds other common killers such as kidney disease.

This isn’t just a number for politicians, activists and social scientists to debate. Each of those 44,789 people is someone’s child, husband, wife, sister, brother. And next year, one of them might be someone you know and love.

You can find the study at www.pnhp.org/news/2009/september. You can learn more about Mike at www.lifeomike.org. You can help end these preventable deaths by calling and writing your Congressman/woman and Senators today…. and again tomorrow… and again and again until this blot on our nation is erased. (Offer your comment at the bottom of the page)