Being uninsured.  A recent article in Annals of Intern Medicine (2014; 160: 585-93) explored the reduction in mortality associated with expansion of Medicaid.

Key result: “Reform in Massachusetts was associated with a significant decrease in all-cause mortality compared with the control group (−2.9%; P = 0.003, or an absolute decrease of 8.2 deaths per 100 000 adults).”  The control group consisted of similar patients from other states.

An editorial (advbd.co/1lWHfsu) on this subject (from Atul Gawande retweet), notes the following: “The takeaway: Every 830 additional people who got insurance under Massachusetts’ health reforms prevented roughly one death….

A 2012 Urban Institute report estimated that 15.1 million uninsured adults could gain coverage if every state expanded Medicaid. Using the 830 figure from the Massachusetts study, and acknowledging that the state’s coverage wasn’t exactly equivalent to Medicaid, that would translate to 18,193 deaths prevented per year.

For a sense of comparison—that would make the Medicaid coverage gap the number five leading cause of preventable death in the United States”

¹ “Medicaid Coverage Gap” based on 2012 estimate; other causes based on 2010 data.

Bottomline: Not having health insurance can be very bad for your health.

Related blog post:

45,000 Unnecessary Deaths Per Year | gutsandgrowth