The assertion that it is only because of a lack of a few pieces of paper that death is caused stretches one's belief in surveys and studies, especially when prepared by stakeholders. One has to actually go to the doctor for even health care to work. What happened to the law that requires care to be administered in emergency rooms? Is it not being utilized anymore? Is, in fact, health care being rationed?

Mr. Collings: Since it was the health insurance companies (esp. Wellpoint) that wrote most of the ACA plus Big Pharma and the Hospitals that were the biggest benefactors of the ACA it's not clear to me who you think is taking over health care. You seem to prefer the status quo where one of the richest countries in the world has the most expensive health care with 3rd world outcomes while 1/6 of our population is uncovered and another 1/6 has essentially bogus insurance. Our so-called health care system is expensive, inefficient, ineffective and immoral.
I am no fan of the ACA. I am a fan of a Medicare for all single payer system. As a veteran I like the VA system which, of course, is socialistic (Uncle Sam owns it all)I could even have gone for Hawaii's system which is the second cheapest in the nation (no for profit insurance) after N.D. but has the second highest participants after Massachusetts.
Drop the ideology and get some facts and some compassion.

Vashti Winterburg: since you offer no real proof for your assertions they lack credibility.

As I said in my previous post, exactly what I have come to expect from those trying to promote the national healthcare takeover act, not with facts but with empty rhetoric and with not-well-grounded assessments and assertions."

I'd like to know how the health care law has "suppressed the economy" and led to fewer people having health insurance. Since I've seen estimates of as many as 85,000 Americans a year dying for lack of health insurance, I'd also be interested in the background of this research. Who paid for it, etc.
The CIA last year attributed the U.S.'s lousy health care statistics to lack of access to health care. Not smoking, not obesity, not lack of exercise - lack of access. When you have 50 million people with no health insurance and another 50 million with essentially bogus health insurance this is an access problem. Any other excuse is drivel.

If you look more closely at the organizations who sponsored and then reported on this so-called research, you will find the SEIU, Pro-Obama groups, Pro-healthcare takeover act groups, and self-described "ethnic news organizations". In other words, exactly the collection of groups that you would expect to find trying to promote the national healthcare takeover act, not with facts but with empty rhetoric and with not-well-grounded assessments and assertions.

Another factor to consider. It is rare that a physician or health care professional "prevents illness" with the exception of perhaps early detection of maligancies through screening activities and immunizations.

The most cost effective measures and the biggest intervention that will have the most effect in reducing our overall cost of health care is already available to everyone.

Once an individual is diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, the risk factors for ever increasingly morbidity is already present. Add the risk of smoking and multiply these factors even mre.

All of these can be prevented in many instances by the individual exercising, eating properly and having a weight where oen is not overweight or obese. Acheiving these does not require health insurance or even seeing a health care professional.

Acheiving these goals will go much further in reducing costs and reducing premature deaths than any other intervention.

I looked for documentation of a causal relationship between lack of insurance and premature death in the paper. The resarech should be restated showing that there is a strong "association" between lack of health care coverage and an increased risk of death. This is different from saying that it is a direct cause of these deaths.

I have no doubt that there is a causal relationship. However this article likely overstates the facts.

I have served as a Chief Medical Officer for a nationwide Medicare Advantage plan that focused on rural America in secondary markets. I large proportion of the members were Dual Eligible and Special Needs Patients. It was extra-ordinarily difficult to get this membership to get proper annual physicals, preventative care and necessary follow up to care. A major reason was due to the patient behavior.

I bring this up so we are more aware that there are also others factors at play here. Indeed, we can lead horse to water but .....

This is a "Important Article", but yet I did not hear it discussed on any Major news outlet today. I did hear that Kim Kardashian was wearing snake boots in France.

So we all know in Healthcare that one out of Four Californians has no Health Insurance .

Those who have Insurance are going for years without an "Annual Physical Examination". About 47 million adults (out of 300 Million) or 22% of Americans get a preventative exam annually (The majority of those that receive annual Physicals are from the North East- the West Coast has the worst numbers).

By the time the Patient ends up in the ER room the condition has escalated beyond the point of care. In the next few days we will all know if Healthcare reform has passed the Supreme Court. But either way, we really need to start educating our public on the importance of receiving a Annual Physical Examination and Annual Dental Examinations.

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