Single-Payer Group's "45,000 Deaths" Claim Disguised as From "Harvard" Study

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Reporter Reed Abelson claimed: "Researchers from Harvard Medical School say the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States - a toll that is greater than the number of people who die each year from kidney disease." But the report actually emanated from an activist group, Physicians for a National Health Program, which suports a single-payer national health program.

Clay Waters

"The Cost of Doing Without," a short health-care story by Reed Abelson, used an unidentified left-wing study to argue that a lack of health insurance causes 45,000 deaths a year in the United States.

Abelson's brief was based on a longer post at the paper's "Prescriptions" blog:

HarvardMedicalSchool

Single-Payer Group's "45,000 Deaths" Claim Disguised as From "Harvard" Study