Report calculates toll on uninsured

DES MOINES - Three Iowans died each day in 2010 because they didn't have health insurance to cover medical expenses, according to a report released Wednesday by Families USA.

The non-partisan, non-profit group advocates for universal health care coverage. Its report, “Dying for Coverage,” applied a methodology first used in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine to current census data to determine the number of deaths - by state - where people die because they lack insurance.

The report claims 26,100 people nationwide died in 2010 - the most recent year available - because of no coverage. For the five-year period between 2005 and 2010, Families USA says 134,120 people died because of lack of access to health insurance. That's about 10,000 more people than the population of Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second-largest city.

“When people are uninsured, what they often do is defer care,” Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said during a conference call with reporters. “They may not feel they can afford care they may need. They hope the problem or the pain will go away.”

The report comes in advance of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is expected this month.

The act requires that people buy health insurance either through work or through state-sponsored health care exchanges where policies would be offered to individuals who cannot afford or don't have the option of employer plans.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad joined the lawsuit that challenges the federal government's authority to mandate that people buy health insurance. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has promised to repeal the law if he is elected.

“Coverage often means survival,” said Richard Woodruff, vice president of federal relations for the American Cancer Society, who joined Pollack on the call. He said mandatory coverage provisions that states are required to offer for the policies they sell through their exchanges would help cancer patients who often find that they have limited treatment coverage after being diagnosed.

“Sometimes the doctor bill may be covered, but the hospital stay isn't, or it's the other way around,” Woodruff said of some current insurance plans. “It's very distressing when it happens.”

According to the National Council of State Legislatures, 10 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to establish the exchanges and two states have had exchanges established by executive order. Iowa is not one of them.