E Pluribus Unum

Malcolm Gladwell:

• The leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is unpaid medical bills.

• Half of the uninsured owe money to hospitals, and a third are being pursued by collection agencies.

• Children without health insurance are less likely to receive medical attention for serious injuries, for recurrent ear infections, or for asthma.

• Lung-cancer patients without insurance are less likely to receive surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation treatment.

• Heart-attack victims without health insurance are less likely to receive angioplasty.

• People with pneumonia who don’t have health insurance are less likely to receive X rays or consultations.

• The death rate in any given year for someone without health insurance is twenty-five per cent higher than for someone with insurance.

• Because the uninsured are sicker than the rest of us, they can’t get better jobs, and because they can’t get better jobs they can’t afford health insurance, and because they can’t afford health insurance they get even sicker.