Over 43 million people, one in seven Americans under age 65, lack health insurance. The Institute of Medicine Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance is completing a three-year, comprehensive study of uninsurance and its implications for uninsured individuals, their families, their communities, and the nation. Supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the objectives of the IOM Committee’s work were:

• to assess and consolidate the evidence about the health, economic, and social consequences of uninsurance; and
• to raise awareness and improve understanding by both the general public and policy decision makers of the extent and nature of the consequences of lacking health insurance.

Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. Although America leads the world in spending on health care, it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage. To help policy-makers, elected officials, and others judge and compare proposals to extend coverage to the nation's 43 million uninsured, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies offers a set of guiding principles and a checklist in a new report, INSURING AMERICA'S HEALTH: PRINCIPLES AND RECOMMENDATIONS. The report is the culmination of a series that offers the most comprehensive examination to date of the consequences of lack of health insurance. It will be released at a one-hour public briefing.

The report was released to the public on Wednesday, January 14, 2004. The release featured brief remarks by Senator Robert Dole and Congressman Paul Rogers, followed by remarks by Harvey Fineberg, President of the Institute of Medicine and a presentation by Committee co-chair, Mary Sue Coleman, president, University of Michigan. Participants included Committee co-chair Arthur Kellermann, professor of emergency medicine, Emory University, and Committee members Shoshanna Sofaer, professor of health policy, Baruch College, New York, and Reed Tuckson, senior vice president, UnitedHealth Group.