November
30, 1999
More than 44 million people in this country lack adequate
access to health care services because they are uninsured.
Today, a new report released by the American College of
Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP/ASIM)
documents the direct link between the lack of insurance
and adverse medical outcomes. For Americans with known
or at risk of heart disease, the outcome of a lack of
insurance can be the difference between life and death.
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) supports the
findings of the ACP/ASIM report as further evidence that
a universal approach to addressing the problem of the
uninsured is necessary.
The ACP/ASIM report, iNo Health Insurance? It's Enough
to Make You Sick,i compiles new evidence to support
the fact that uninsured Americans experience reduced
access to health care. It is indeed a tragedy in our
country when someone can be denied access to the best
medical care because they cannot afford health insurance.
The ACC has long supported the concept of universal
health care coverage. In its 1998 statement on access
to cardiovascular care, the ACC endorsed the concept
that iall are provided with adequate insurance or other
coverage for clinically appropriate health services,
regardless of socioeconomic status.i
Health insurance is not just about access for those
who are acutely sick. Health insurance is also about
getting needed preventive services and having a constant
and reliable source of care. Heart disease is preventable.
But for people without health insurance, high cholesterol,
hypertension and other heart disease risk factors often
go unchecked until it is too late n when a patient is
admitted to the emergency department with a myocardial
infarction or congestive heart failure. The result is
lost productivity, costly emergency room visits and
surgery, or even death. Because uninsured Americans
are also less likely to have a usual source of care,
it could mean that millions of adult Americans with
congenital heart disease or other illnesses originating
in childhood are not receiving the routine care their
condition requires. This is an issue of great concern
to the ACC. It is wrong that an infant born with congenital
heart disease, a life-long condition, can benefit from
the technological medical advances our health care system
has to offer, only to find that he or she is locked
out of the system once they reach adulthood.
ACC commends the ACP/ASIM for its ongoing efforts to
draw attention to the problem of the uninsured and hopes
that the findings will be received by lawmakers with
the same urgency that the report's findings convey.
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