According to a recent study conducted by a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston and the Cambridge Health Alliance, an estimated 11.4 Americans without health insurance suffer from chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have shown that uninsured Americans are more likely to suffer from advanced forms of cancer compared to people covered by private health insurance.

The uninsured are more likely to suffer from chronic disease and other severe illnesses because most of them are not getting routine screenings for different types of diseases in time.

Dr. Andrew P. Wilper and colleagues from Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, analyzed data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey for 1999-2004, which included 12,486 men and women 18 to 64 years old. The researchers concluded that an estimated 11.4 million working-age Americans with at least one of seven chronic medical conditions do not have health insurance. But the number may be higher than estimated because the study includes only patients that have received a diagnosis.

Researchers found that 16.1 percent of the 7.8 million people with cardiovascular disease, 15.5 percent of the 38.2 million people with high blood pressure and 16.6 percent of the 8.5 people with diabetes were uninsured.

“The uninsured can’t get in to see the doctor, they miss medications, their blood pressure is out of control and, really, you see devastating consequences,” said the authors of the study published in the Aug. 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

After they adjusted for race, gender and race or ethnicity, the authors concluded that 23 percent of the uninsured sufferers hadn’t seen a health provider in the last year, compared with 6 percent of the chronically ill who had insurance.

The lack of insurance combined with chronic illness can lead to complications of their illnesses. People with serious chronic illnesses who don’t receive regular medical care “may face early disability and death as a result,” the authors of the study said. People with high blood pressure that are uninsured face a greater risk of stroke because they are not getting the drugs they need.

One of the obstacles to medical care for the uninsured, as well as for the insured is the cost. Earlier this year, a report released by the Center for Studying Health System Change found that about 20 percent of the US population are delaying or skipping needed medical care because they are concerned about the cost. The number of Americans who delayed or skipped receiving medical treatment increased in 2007 with 6%. Medical costs have risen at least twice the rate of the inflation for several years.

A study conducted by the American Cancer Society concluded that uninsured Americans who are diagnosed with cancer have a 60 percent greater chance of dying from cancer than people diagnosed with cancer who have health insurance.

“Health care insurance reform is necessary for good care for chronic disease,” Dr. Marshall H. Chin of the University of Chicago writes in an editorial accompanying Wilper’s study.