Gosh.. wonder if he had any other risk factors?
A study of 690,000 patients from 2002 to 2006 found that uninsured trauma and gunshot patients getting emergency died at almost twice the rate of those that are insured.
Some say this is why we should give everybody insurance. But I say this means people are stupid who don’t buy insurance.
Besides the fine print says it all:
In the study, the overall death rate was 4.7 percent, so most emergency room patients survived their injuries. The commercially insured patients had a death rate of 3.3 percent. The uninsured patients’ death rate was 5.7 percent. Those rates were before the adjustments for other risk factors.
The headline and story are based on rates BEFORE adjustment for other risk factors…. and we aren’t told the rates after adjustment. Do uninsured fare BETTER than insured, after adjusting for risk factors?
We don’t know. I presume we don’t know because the raw data fits the AP goal of pushing healthcare insurance.
I suspect the “risk factors” of with the population of uninsured matter at lot more than the AP wants publish.
Another bothersome nit they don’t think through is blaming the death rate on lack of resources of hospitals more likely to see uninsured patients:
The hospitals that treat them also could have fewer resources.
"Those hospitals tend to be financially strapped, not have the same level of staffing, not have the same level of surgeons and testing and equipment," Gawande said. "That also is likely a major contributor."
Uhmmm… you mean like what ALL of us will have when you ruin the US healthcare system?
November 17th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Sounds like a bogus study. Its one of those ” this is the result I want, how can I twist the data to get there” studies. What does having insurance have to do with trauma care? Nothing- they all get it, its the law. I don’t buy the bad hospital argument either- the trauma centers in LA and San Berdoo are in the bad areas.