WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA, 13th) commented on new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau showing the number of Americans without health insurance grew by 860,000 from 2003 to 2004. There are now 45.8 million Americans without health insurance; 6.7 million in California alone.
“Nearly 46 million Americans have no health insurance and Republican leadership in Congress continue to do nothing to solve the problem,” Stark said. “About 18,000 people die every year from lack of health insurance. That’s ten times more Americans than have died in the Iraq war, it’s twelve times more people than die each year due to hand gun accidents and it’s more than double the number of people who die annually due to medication errors in hospitals. A lack of health insurance is costing this nation lives and resources.”
The United States remains the only industrialized nation that does not provide health insurance to its citizens.
Representative Stark, a long-time proponent of universal health coverage, has recently offered legislation to provide health insurance to every American child under the age of 23. This year Stark also introduced a Constitutional Amendment making health insurance a right for all Americans.
