Institute of Medicine
The National Academies Press
Hidden Costs, Value Lost
Uninsurance in America
The best available estimate of the value of uncompensated health care services provided to persons who lack health insurance for some or all of a year is roughly $35 billion annually, about 2.8% of total national spending for personal health care services.
The Committee’s best estimate of the aggregate, annualized cost of the diminished health and shorter life spans of Americans who lack health insurance is between $65 and $130 billion for each year of health insurance forgone.
Estimates of the cost of the additional health care that would be provided to the uninsured once they became insured range from $34 to $69 billion per year, assuming no structural changes in the systems of health care financing or delivery, average scope of benefits, or provider payment.
Conclusion
This report and the work of the Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance not only provide information about the costs resulting from the lack of coverage and some of the costs and benefits of expanding it to everyone, it also presents us with an ethical dilemma. In light of the information and analyses that the Committee has developed about choices we have not made as a society, as well as those we have made to invest heavily in health care, we cannot excuse the unfairness and insufficient compassion with which our society deploys its considerable health care resources and expertise. Providing all members of American society with health insurance coverage would contribute to the realization of democratic ideals of equality of opportunity and mutual concern and respect. By tolerating a society in which a significant minority lacks the health care and coverage that most Americans enjoy, we are missing opportunities to become more fully the nation we claim to be.
http://books.nap.edu/books/030908931X/html/index.html
