Lack of Insurance to Blame for Almost 45,000 Dea...(avier drinkers and people who are older ...),Health

"The things that we would expect to predict death seem to," said Wilper. "Nonetheless, even after controlling for all those things, we find this elevated risk for death among those without insurance."

Not everyone agreed with the new findings, however. In a statement released Thursday, the National Center for Policy Analysis, which opposes nationalized health care, called the Harvard research "flawed."

"The findings in this research are based on faulty methodology and the death risk is significantly overstated," NCPA President John C. Goodman said. "The subjects were interviewed only once and the study tries to link their insurance status at that time to mortality a decade later. Yet over the period, the authors have no idea whether subjects were insured or uninsured, what kind of medical care they received, or even cause of death."

But another expert supported the research. Lucien Wulsin, director of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Insure the Uninsured Project, said that while the study does not examine how or why the uninsured died, it seems to substantiate what is already known about the lack of access to health care services.

"I saw it as very much validating the earlier [IOM] study, that being without health insurance means that you have a greater likelihood of mortality because you don't get the care when you don't have the health insurance until 'too-little too-late,'" Wulsin said.

Wilper said the IOM identifies three factors that influence health outcomes: not getting care when needed, not having a regular source of care, and not getting continuity of coverage.

"If you have an illness that may have dire consequences if it's untreated, such as hypertension or coronary artery disease, and you can't get in to see the doctor, you're more likely to have some serious outcome from that untreated illness," he said.

California led
'/>"/>