Colorado Tragedy - Many surviving victims have no health insurance

Colorado Tragedy - Many surviving victims have no health insurance -

The tragedy that took place in the Colorado movie theater week last naturally sparked a flood of media attention. The devastating fire caused immeasurable pain already for victims and families. Further pressure arose because many of the 58 surviving victims do not have health insurance.

Fortunately, it was recently reported that at least three of the five hospitals treating the surviving victims will give up some or all of their medical expenses. This article by Maia Szalavitz, writer for Time Healthland raises a provocative question: why only highly public tragedies survivors receive affordable medicines

While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to change that, here are some facts about our uninsured nation from now on:

• According to a Harvard study in 09, nearly 45,000 people die the United States each year (one every twelve minutes), largely due to the fact they do not have health insurance and can not receive quality care.
• US adults aged 64 or under who do not have health insurance have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with coverage.
• The primary cause of bankruptcy in the United States is a medical catastrophe. Most of these failures relate to the middle class, educated homeowners.
• In Colorado, where the shooting incident took place, almost a third of residents are uninsured or underinsured.

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