["Healthcare reform is long overdue in the U.S.," said the lead
author of a new study. "Americans are needlessly losing lives and
money."]
[[link removed]]

MEDICARE FOR ALL COULD HAVE PREVENTED MORE THAN 338,000 US COVID
DEATHS: STUDY  
[[link removed]]


 

Kenny Stancil
June 14, 2022
Common Dreams
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ "Healthcare reform is long overdue in the U.S.," said the lead
author of a new study. "Americans are needlessly losing lives and
money." _

Public health workers, doctors, and nurses protest outside a hospital
in the Bronx on April 17, 2020 in New York., Giles Clarke/Getty Images


 

COVID-19 HAS KILLED MORE than one million
[[link removed]]
people in the United States over the past two years, but more than
338,000 of those lives could have been saved if the country had a
universal single-payer healthcare system such as Medicare for All.

That's according to
[[link removed]] new
peer-reviewed research published Monday in _Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences_.

Although U.S. residents pay more
[[link removed]]
for healthcare than their peers around the world, the nation's
fragmented for-profit model leaves tens of millions of people
uninsured and delivers worse outcomes
[[link removed]].

Unnecessary costs and preventable deaths were already rampant in the
U.S. before the coronavirus took hold, but the ongoing pandemic has
further exposed and exacerbated the many preexisting inequalities that
have contributed to exceptionally high mortality
[[link removed]]
compared with other high-income countries.

Universal single-payer healthcare, which the study calls "fundamental
to pandemic preparedness," could have prevented 338,594 Covid-19
deaths in the U.S. from the beginning of the public health emergency
to mid-March 2022. Researchers estimate that if everyone in the
country was provided with comprehensive care for free at the point of
service, 131,438 people who died from Covid-19 could have been spared
in 2020 alone, and roughly 80,000 people with other diseases could
have been saved that year. More than 207,000 additional Covid-19
deaths could have been averted in 2021 and the first three months of
this year.

With Medicare for All, the U.S. also could have avoided $105.6 billion
in healthcare expenses associated with Covid-19 hospitalizations over
the course of the pandemic, the study says.

"Healthcare reform is long overdue in the U.S.," the study's lead
author Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infectious Disease
Modeling and Analysis at the Yale School of Public Health, told
[[link removed]]
_Scientific American_. "Americans are needlessly losing lives and
money."

To arrive at their figures, Galvani's team compared the mortality
risks of Covid-19 and all other causes of death among people with and
without health insurance. The researchers amassed population
characteristics of all uninsured Americans during the pandemic,
considering variables such as age-specific life expectancy and the
heightened mortality that accompanies uninsurance.

Because people without health insurance typically do not have a
primary care physician, "they are more likely to suffer from
preventable diseases such as Type 2 diabetes [and] they also tend to
wait longer to see a doctor when they fall ill," _Scientific American_
explained
[[link removed]].
"These two factors already contribute to higher mortality rates in
nonpandemic years, and they compounded the impacts of Covid-19.
Comorbidities exacerbate the risk of the disease, and waiting to seek
care increases the likelihood of transmission to other people."

More than 28 million U.S. adults already lacked health insurance and
tens of millions more were underinsured
[[link removed]] prior
to the start of the pandemic. Millions of additional workers were
kicked off
[[link removed]]
of their employer-based plans when the coronavirus crisis resulted in
widespread unemployment.

"Many Americans feel secure in having good health insurance from their
employer," said Galvani, "but employer-based insurance can be cut off
when it is needed most."

In their new study, the researchers also predict how much insuring the
entire U.S. population would cost—and save. They estimate that a
single-payer healthcare system would have generated a net savings of
$459 billion in 2020 and would yield $438 billion in a nonpandemic
year thanks to more efficient investment in preventative care, reduced
administrative costs, and increased negotiating power for
pharmaceuticals and technology.

"Medicare for All would be both an economic stimulus and lifesaving
transformation of our healthcare system," said Galvani. "It will cost
people far less than the status quo."

Ann Keller, an associate professor of health policy and management at
the University of California, Berkeley who was not involved with the
research, told _Scientific American_ that she thinks the new study may
underestimate the number of Covid-19 deaths that could have been
prevented with universal healthcare because it doesn't sufficiently
address the relationship between single-payer systems and lower rates
of chronic disease.

"Having consistent access to care can prevent chronic disease from
occurring and can ensure that patients who develop chronic disease
have it better managed," said Keller. "I would think that, if one took
that into account, the estimates of avoided deaths would be greater
than the numbers reported here."

The authors do acknowledge that their "estimates are conservative with
regard to the lifesaving benefits of comprehensive universal
healthcare that eliminates all costs to the patient" because
underinsured people often forgo needed care just like their uninsured
counterparts, but the paper focuses only on the latter.

The researchers' overarching message, Galvani stressed, couldn't be
clearer: "Universal single-payer healthcare is both economically
responsible and morally imperative."

An estimated 44% of U.S. adults—roughly 112 million
people—continue to struggle to pay
[[link removed]]
for healthcare. To eliminate the high premiums, deductibles, and
copays that currently enrich the insurance industry—making
healthcare unaffordable for tens of millions, including many who are
nominally insured—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last month introduced
[[link removed]]
the Medicare for All Act of 2022 alongside 14 Senate co-sponsors.

"We can either continue down the path of corporate greed and human
suffering, or we can do what every other rich nation has done and
guarantee universal coverage," Public Citizen president Robert
Weissman said
[[link removed]]
at the time. "Medicare for All is the realistic, humane, and just
choice."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel
free to republish and share widely.

* Medicare for All; Covid Deaths; Pandemic Preparedness;
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]