WASHINGTON - A lack of health insurance can be a killer for hundreds of Ohioans a year just as sure as if they had been murder victims.

That's the finding of a new report that says that is the cause for two deaths of working age adults per day in Ohio, about 750 people in 2006.

The state-by-state study by Families USA, a liberal advocacy group that campaigns for universal health care coverage, draws from previous national studies that drew links between people lacking health insurance and people dying from health-related causes. The group, along with several Ohio lawmakers, was to discuss its report this morning on a conference call with reporters.

Uninsured adults are more likely, the group said in a release, to be diagnosed with serious diseases such as cancer at an advanced stage. The Institute of Medicine, which in 2002 did the initial work in this area on a national basis, found that uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with private health insurance.

"Health insurance really matters in how people make their health care decisions," said Ron Pollack, Families USA executive director, in a release. "We know that people without insurance often forgo checkups, screenings and other preventive care.

"Our report highlights how our inadequate system of health coverage condemns a great number of Ohioans to an early death, simply because they don't have the same access to health care as their insured neighbors. The conclusions are sadly clear – a lack of health coverage is a matter of life and death for many Ohioans."

Between 2000 and 2006, Families USA found, an estimated 5,100 Ohioans between the ages of 25 and 64 died because of a lack of health insurance. Nationwide in 2006, twice as many people in that age group, about 22,000, died from a lack of health insurance as were murder victims, the group says.

The Institute of Medicine found in 2002 that 18,000 adults died nationwide due to health problems turned deadly because of a lack of insurance. That figure was changed to 22,000 in an updated 2006 study by the Urban Institute, Families USA said.