It figures. Uninsured children have higher death rates, according to a recent study by a non-partisan advocacy organization.

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Hospitalized children who lack health insurance are twice as likely to die from their injuries as those with insurance, a new study reports.

Uninsured children also are less likely to get expensive treatment or rehabilitation and are discharged earlier, says the study by the health care advocacy group Families USA.

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J. Mick Tilford, associate professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said the data he studied for the Families USA report included 25,000 uninsured children with general injuries and 6,500 with traumatic brain injuries. Compared with insured children, he said, the uninsured had 327 "excess deaths" over two years.

Though the study was contested by "two major hospital associations" (which are interested parties...),

The Families USA findings are consistent with others showing the medical implications of living without health insurance. Studies by the Institute of Medicine, the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine and the Commonwealth Fund have shown higher death rates among the uninsured. The Institute of Medicine and the Center for Studying Health System Change found evidence of lesser treatment and fewer surgeries in hospitals, but children were not studied separately.

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Many studies show that the uninsured are less likely to have doctors, get preventive care and seek timely treatment. The American Hospital Association cited those factors in its own report. "Children's health and well-being are compromised needlessly," it said.