According to a new study, uninsured patients with traumatic injuries including victims of car crashes, falls, and gun shot wounds, are almost twice as likely to die as trauma victims with health insurance.

  
The study from Harvard University surprised experts and doctors who believed that care in the emergency room was equitable.

  
The study analyzed medical data on 690,000 American emergency room patients seen between 2002 and 2006 at over 900 hospitals. They did not include burn patients, patients who were treated and then released, or patients dead on arrival.

  
The overall death rate was 4.7%. More than 95% of patients survive their injuries. Privately insured patients had a death rate of 3.3%. Uninsured patients had a death rate of 5.7%. This is before the rates were adjusted for other risk factors.

  
When researchers took into account factors such as the severity of the injury, and race, gender and age, the uninsured were still 80% more likely to die than those with insurance, even than low income patients covered by Medicaid. 

 
Researchers could not determine what causes this dramatic difference. It is possible that hospitals that treat uninsured patients have fewer resources and have less qualified staff, or that uninsured patients do not receive the same care. 

  
Some private hospitals transfer patients because of payment issues.  While the law requires that all hospitals treat medically unstable emergency room patients, some hospitals transfer these patients as soon as they are stable. A transfer could cause set backs in a patient’s condition or delay treatment.