It should be more difficult to remain indifferent now that we know how many of our neighbors are dying each year because they have no or too little health insurance.
A report by Families USA, whose Web site decribes it as a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for high-quality, affordable health care, estimates that three people between the ages of 25 and 64 die in Utah every week because they did not have health insurance.
A lack of adequate health care led to the deaths of 150 Utahns in 2006 and more than 800 between 2000 and 2006, the report declares.
The group's methodology for coming up with the first state-by-state numbers of deaths caused by lack of insurance mirrors two earlier national studies done by the U.S. Institute of Medicine and The Urban Institute.
It's mind-boggling that in the wealthiest nation on the globe, people are suffering under a Third World system of health care and that premature death is an accepted outcome.
Without health insurance, Utahns forgo preventive screenings because of the cost. When they are diagnosed with cancer or diabetes or heart disease, it is often so advanced that nothing can be done. They do not get proper care for such ordinary ailments as strep infections that can lead to chronic disease.
Low-income, undereducated and immigrant residents are hit particularly hard, but even middle-range incomes are inadequate to pay the high costs of health care, especially when the uninsured are charged 2.5 times as much as people with insurance for hospital care.
As a result, being uninsured is the third-leading cause of death among those age 55 to 64. Overall, uninsured Americans face a 25 percent higher chance of premature death than those who have insurance.
Death by government neglect is unacceptable. Since the Clinton administration proposed a national health-care plan 15 years ago, Congress has made no progress whatever toward a workable system that includes revamping the near-insolvent Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The Utah Legislature failed to adopt a comprehensive plan proposed by a group of community leaders and sponsored by respected Republican Rep. David Clark. Instead, lawmakers punted the issue to a task force. This group must act quickly to find solutions that work for everybody. The fact that many of the group's members have received hefty donations from medical, pharmaceutical and insurance companies is worrisome, but it would be hard to seat a group of legislators who were not beneficiaries of these deep pockets.
There is no time left for dithering or for pandering to powerful insurance and medical interests who oppose any change to the deadly status quo that is keeping their bottom lines healthy. It's time for action, and it's a matter of life and death.
