Uninsured trauma mortality higher

CHICAGO – Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, from car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new Harvard University study.

The findings surprised doctors and health experts, who have believed emergency room care was equitable.

“This is another drop in a sea of evidence that the uninsured fare much worse in their health in the United States,” said senior author Dr. Atul Gawande, a Harvard surgeon and medical journalist…

Read more here (Associated Press)