Death by Cause in the USA

Death by Cause in USA ANNUALLY:

1. Smoking 435,000 deaths.
2. Overweight / Obesity 365,000.
3. In-hospital medical errors, 195,000.
4. Alcohol 85,000 deaths.
5. Infectious diseases 75,000 deaths.
6. Toxins 55,000 deaths.
7. Motor vehicle collisions 43,000 deaths.
8. Firearms deaths (accident, homicide, suicide, in that order) 12,000 deaths.
9. Errors in prescribed medications 7,000 deaths (1.5 million preventable medication errors annually).

Top Ten Myths of American Health Care SEE: Sally Pipes, author of “The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen’s Guide.” Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

THE “UNINSURED” IN AMERICA:

10 million are NON-citizens

18 million earn over $50,000, with 10 million of those earning over $75,000 so they can afford something in the way of Health Care Insurance.

14 million are already eligible for some form of Medicare, Medicaid or SCHIP…they just have not signed up for it…this figure includes the roughly 6 million children you hear about.

Some of the above figures overlap each other…but the bottom line is that there are no where near the number of people who are uninsured because they cannot afford it. That smaller figure…about 5 – 10 million are the ones who need an assist with obtaining health coverage…

• Why should we cover the NON-citizen?
• Why should we cover the above average wage earners who refuse to plan smartly?
• Why should we cover the ones who are already eligible, yet fail to avail themselves of help…where dollars are already allocated for them?

The Census Bureau states that “insurance coverage may be significantly higher” than their own report indicates because people underreport coverage for a variety of reasons.

Smokers can quit, the morbidly obese could benefit from eating less and exercising more, alcoholics can take the cure along with the drug addicts, and if they don’t they can take the consequences for their behavior and the government should not force me to do so.