Opponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) ignore the fact that thousands of uninsured Americans die unnecessarily from treatable conditions. A 2009 study conducted at Harvard Medical School and published in the American Journal of Public Health found that 45,000 deaths are associated with lack of health insurance in the U.S. each year (1).
The Affordable Care Act has already increased the number of insured Americans and will do more in 2014 when all its provisions are in effect (2).
The Affordable Care Act also will help states to expand Medicaid in 2014, providing health care coverage to people who cannot afford insurance. To study the impact of this expansion, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health looked at states that have already expanded Medicaid (3). The researchers found that Medicaid expansions prevented 19.6 deaths per 100,000 adults, concluding: “State Medicaid expansions to cover low-income adults were significantly associated with reduced mortality as well as improved coverage, access to care, and self-reported health.”
Politicians like Mitt Romney who threaten to overturn the Affordable Care Act put politics ahead of American lives.
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