Friday, April 04, 2008
Capitalism kills...50 Americans a day
Report:
At least eight Californians die every day because they don't have health insurance.Amount spent and to be spent on the invasion and occupation of Iraq: $3 trillion. Number of lives that could have been saved with that money if invested in health insurance - thousands every year. Number that could be saved if the money was spent on health care (as opposed to health insurance)? Even more. Number that could be saved if the pharmaceutical industry wasn't spending billions of dollars each year advertising drugs that don't even work (or worse!), and price-gouging on the ones that do work? Even more.
An estimated 3,100 adults in the state died in 2006 because they lacked insurance and either couldn't afford the care they needed, got substandard care or got treatment after it was too late, determined researchers with Families USA, a national health care advocacy organization based in Washington.
The national Institute of Medicine concluded that between 2001 and 2004, a lack of insurance caused roughly 18,000 deaths nationwide per year.
