12 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AMERICA’S UNINSURED

• Nearly 47 million Americans have no health insurance. That number exceeds the combined population of 24 states.
• Some 18,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of having no insurance. That’s the equivalent of six September 11ths every year.
• Every 30 seconds someone in the U.S. files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.
• Middle-income households accounted for the greatest increase in the number of uninsured in 2005.
• The majority of uninsured Americans are neither poor by official standards nor unemployed. In fact, seven out of ten uninsured Americans come from families where one adult works.
• Racial and ethnic minorities account for over half of the uninsured.
• Employer-sponsored health care is harder to obtain every year. Without job-based group coverage, private insurance can be unattainable or unaffordable.
• The uninsured are more likely to live sicker and die younger.  Uninsured people with terminal illnesses are often diagnosed later and lack access to life-saving technology.
• Uninsured women with breast cancer are twice as likely to die from the disease than women who are insured.
• Having insurance improves overall health and could reduce mortality rates for the uninsured by 10-15%.
• The U.S. spends over 53% more on health care than any other industrialized country, even those that provide universal health care.
• According to the Institute of Medicine, if the U.S. provided universal health care under the current system, the cost of insuring everyone would increase spending by less than two percent.
  
  Sources: Kaiser Family Foundation, The New York Times, U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Institute of Medicine.

Every man, woman and child has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
—Universal Declaration Of Human Rights