False: In the U.S., nearly 200 people die every day due to a lack of access to basic health insurance.

By: Rashmi S
February 10 2021

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The estimated number of people dying because they have don't have health insurance is lower.In the U.S., the lack of access to health insurance has long since been a problem. In December 2020, a Gallup poll found that 25 percent of Americans reported that they or a family member have put off treatment for a serious medical condition in the past year because of the cost. Families USA, a nonprofit health advocacy organization, has also looked into the impact of not having health insurance. In 2012, Reuters reported that Family USA found there was a record high of 26,100 people aged 25 to 64 dying for lack of health coverage in 2010, up from 20,350 in 2005 and 18,000 in 2000. In 2002, a widely-reported study from the Institute of Medicine found that over 18,000 Americans aged between the ages of 25 and 64 years die each year because of lack of health insurance. That said, if 200 Americans were to die every day because they didn't have health insurance, this would amount to 73,000 Americans dying each year. Recent estimates do vary — with the highest recent estimate being over 45,000 (the American Journal of Public Health, 2009) — but no recent estimate has put the figure at 200 Americans a day.