Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Every Congressman should be required to engage brain …before putting mouth into gear. Were it, we might not have heard, “you lie”, or the recent outburst from Rep. Alan Grayson (D. Fl.).
But, at least, Rep. Wilson (R. S.C.) was telling the truth. Rep. Grayson was, well, not exactly. If you have been following the remarks of Grayson, you “learned” that 45,000 die each year because they don’t have insurance.
So, I thought it would make sense to look at the information available concerning whether people who don’t have insurance die more frequently than those who have insurance. Mr. Grayson relies upon a report by Harvard researchers (who are coincidentally in favor of Obamacare) to arrive at his 45,000 figure. To do this, the Harvard researchers went to government health surveys and compared death rates. But, there are at least three flaws in the Harvard study.
First, the data needs to be “sifted” to, in the minds of the researchers, make sure that a “valid” comparison can be made.
And so the scientists have to get creative with the data, comparing insured people who smoke with uninsured people who smoke; insured people who drink with uninsured people who drink.
They try to even out all of the risk factors, so the only difference in life spans can be blamed on health insurance, or the lack of it.
The more researchers have to tinker with data, the more their research becomes an art form.
Second, the surveys used give us only a picture of a brief moment in time. As follow ups to the surveys are rare, someone who was uninsured at the time of the survey may well obtain insurance later, but that same person who dies 10 years later with insurance will still be counted as the death of an “uninsured”. Obviously, the converse is also true.
And third,
The Harvard researchers looked at about 9,000 health surveys, in which about only 350 of the respondents had died. That’s a small sample from which to extrapolate 45,000 dead people a year, so it comes with a whopping margin of error.
But, there is another study out there that Mr. Grayson ignored.
Another study by Dr. Richard Kronick, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and former senior adviser to President Clinton, crunched the numbers from 640,000 health surveys.
He came up with a very small increased risk of death for the uninsured, with a very small margin of error.
As they say, never let the facts stand in the way of a darn good opinion.
Here’s the Grayson moment one more time:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuCFhpc_q-Q&feature=player_embedded
and here’s the 45,000 die claim
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFK9XuXCeno&feature=player_embedded
And for more great moments in Grayson oratory you can revisit our post here.
