Government insurance increases patient death rates

Wednesday, September 21, 2016 by: Samantha Debbie
Tags: Obamacare, organ tranplants, death rate

---

(NaturalNews) Public health insurance, also known as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, continues to prove less than ideal when it comes to quality healthcare coverage. Patients insured through private healthcare companies have longer lifespans compared to those on programs like Obamacare, according to a new study.

The healthcare provider is especially important among individuals undergoing lifesaving services such as organ transplants, according to a report by Business Insider.

"Patients who switch from private to public insurance, like Medicare or Medicaid, have shorter lifespans than those who stay with private insurance in the year after the transplant, researchers found. At the same time, people who had public insurance and switched to private in the year after surgery improved their survival odds."

The study highlights the utter failure of government-mandated health insurance, which operates under limited funding, and ultimately leads to more deaths – and preventable deaths at that.

Switching from public to private healthcare providers has a huge impact on lifespans of individuals undergoing organ transplants

The study authors expressed surprise at how great the impact of a switch in healthcare providers was on an individual's health.

"It was surprising that insurance status changes over a short period of time were indeed associated with heart transplantation outcomes," said Dmitry Tumin with Ohio State University in Columbus.

Tumin is the lead author of the study, which was published September 13 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

"Based on our findings, we suggest that helping people keep their insurance during the transplant process is a policy option that merits further study," he stated to Reuters Health in an email.

The study authors reached their conclusions after analyzing data from a United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) registry made up of 11,681 adults in the United Sates who underwent first-time heart transplants between 2006 and 2013. Participants' ages ranged between 10 and 64 years old.

"Of these patients, about one in five changed insurance coverage type between being put on the waiting list for a heart and one year post-transplant. Most patients, 44 percent, had continuous private insurance and 27 percent had continuous public insurance," reports Business Insider.

Transplant patients on public insurance had 36 percent higher risk of death than those on private insurance, study finds

Fifty percent of the patients survived four years or less after receiving the transplant. Individuals with public insurance had a 36 percent higher risk of dying during the follow-up period compared to those with "continuous private insurance coverage."

Individuals that switched from public to private healthcare coverage had a reduced risk (22 percent) of dying than those covered by public insurance.

Only 12 percent of patients who switched to private insurance passed away during the follow-up period, the study found, while 17 percent of those with public insurance died.

The numbers remained unchanged despite researchers factoring in other influences such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, age, transplant survival outcomes and other health problems.

Studies show private healthcare recipients have access to better care and survival rates

"U.S. transplant centers generally require patients to have some form of insurance before they are waitlisted for a transplant," Tumin said.

"Recent studies suggest that transplant recipients with private insurance have better access to care, better adherence to treatment and are favorably selected for characteristics that predict improved survival."

Public health insurance may be less costly when calculated on a monthly or yearly basis; however, it's also associated with less desired outcomes when health problems arise.

Healthcare providers are increasingly unable to survive unforeseen costs associated with Obamacare. In June, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas announced its plan to significantly increase health insurance rates, hitting the pocketbooks of some 600,000 residents.

Now, healthcare insurer Aetna has announced that it will completely pull out of the Affordable Care Act individual public exchanges in 11 states, due to millions of dollars in losses.

The provider said that it will still offer coverage in Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia, but will cease operations in 11 other states beginning next year, as reported by Breitbart.

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

BusinessInsider.com