While debates and town hall meetings rage on in Washington and neighbourhoods across the United States, a recent study by Harvard-based researchers examined the hot topic of health insurance.

The study, called Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults, finds that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts. This is higher than the 25 percent excess death rate found in 1993.

Approximately 46 million Americans were uninsured last year, accounting for about 15 percent of the total population.