Grayson Launches “Names of the Dead” Website

David Streeter — October 29, 2009 – 3:59 pm | Congress | Democrats | Health Care Comments (1) Add a comment

Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) launched a website so that Americans can share the names of loved ones who died because they could not afford health insurance. Names of the Dead.com is intended to be Grayson’s way of proving the Harvard University study results about 44,000 Americans die every year because they lack the ability to purchase health insurance. So far, the list is growing. However, it appears that online jokers have been submitting fake names on the site to inflate the statistics and make a mockery of the site.

The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein writes of the site:

Grayson’s new online venture may have the same explosive partisanship as his earlier speech from the House floor. But that might make the message a bit more effective. The Democratic Party has repeatedly used stories of people suffering from poor (or denied) insurance coverage as a means of selling the need for reform. The death toll of non-insured has really never been considered a viable political point (likely because of the sensitivities that come when referencing the dead). The fact, however, remains that 45,000 people in America do die from lack of health care insurance every year, according to a Harvard study—and that does provide, at the very least, the most compelling argument for getting expansive reform done quickly.

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