The Boston Globe, November 7, 2009
A new study puts the number of deaths among Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 associated with lack of health insurance at 44,789 a year.
US government agencies typically use a figure around $7 million to represent the lost economic output from each death. If we conservatively use only half of the government figure, or $3.5 million, it suggests that the annual cost to the US economy of 40,000 deaths is about $140 billion.
Linda Bilmes is a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she teaches public finance. Rosemarie Day is deputy director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority of Massachusetts.
To read more click Blimes and Day