A new report claims five Wisconsinites die each week because they can't afford health insurance.
The review conducted by Families USA examined the consequences of not being insured. Robert Kraig is with Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a partner in the study. He says the review looked at national research that analyzed the impacts of not having health insurance. Those without coverage are less likely to get early screening for medical conditions such as breast cancer or colon cancer, which increases their risk of dying from those diseases.
Kraig says the report should be a wake-up call that something needs to be done to address the health care crisis. He says it's a tremendous human tragedy that could be addressed if more affordable coverage was available.
Nationally, an estimated 22,000 Americans died in 2006 because they lacked health insurance. Kraig says it's a quiet killer. He says a lack of health insurance could be considered the third leading cause of death for people ages 55-64, behind heart disease and cancer.
