Many Americans with chronic diseases lack health insurance

A study in this week's Annals of Internal Medicine reported on data from the 1999-2004 NHANES survey of US Households. The study identified at least 11 million uninsured people with chronic diseases. the most common being heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Lack of insurance meant that such individuals were far less likely to attempt to obtain medical care, and unlikely to be able to afford medicines to control their diseases. As a result they were more likely to be unproductive workers, and to be disabled or die early from their conditions. All this increasing the cost of the nation's medical care system.
[Ann Intern Med. 2008;149:170-176.]