Report says health insurance is a matter of life and death

WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 New Yorkers die annually because they do not have health insurance, a study released Tuesday estimated.

The report, by the nonprofit group Families USA, suggests that people without insurance tend to avoid checkups and preventive care. It expanded upon a 2006 study, adding state-by-state statistics for the first time.

"A lack of health coverage is a matter of life and death to many people," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, in a conference call with reporters.

The report showed that about 1,300 people between the ages of 25 and 64 — considered working age — died in New York in 2006 because they did not have health insurance. About 25 people in the state die each week for that reason, Families USA reported.

The group said about 9,900 New Yorkers of working age died for that reason from 2000 to 2006.

Although the group did not rank states, Mr. Pollack said states' records tended to follow their percentage of working-age adults without insurance. That figure is 17.1 percent in New York, higher than in some other Northeastern states but lower than the quarter or so of the population in some southern states, according to the report.

Families USA is non-partisan and has never endorsed candidates for political office, Mr. Pollack said. But it does take positions on health issues, and Mr. Pollack said the national health insurance proposals floated by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have positive aspects because they seek to cover all or most uninsured Americans.

"They go a long way toward alleviating the problem," Mr. Pollack said.

Mr. Pollack blamed a lack of help from Washington for stalling states' efforts to expand health insurance.

He also discounted suggestions that the death rates are not terribly high and perhaps not a cause for alarm, telling reporters that the uninsured often live unhealthy lives.

"They may not die, but it can have a significant impact on their lives," Mr. Pollack said.

The report, drawing on information from the Urban Institute and the Institute of Medicine — authors of a 2006 study — estimated that people without insurance are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than people with private health insurance.

Mr. Pollack said he was not aware of New York's efforts to expand outreach through its own heath insurance programs, relying on social service agencies to help low-income residents seek insurance.