A desperate warning.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The term "canary in the coal mine" - taken from coal miners' use of the boisterous yellow birds as an early warning of toxic gas buildup in the mines - has come to mean any kind of harbinger of things beginning to go wrong. It's important to remember that in the original sense, the canary delivered its "warning" by getting sick or dying.

The recently announced 26 percent rate increase by Oregon's largest health insurer certainly qualifies as a harbinger of things beginning to go wrong: The cost of medical coverage has become dangerously high. But the sacrificial role of the canary in this example will fall to the Oregonians who will get sick or die as a result of being unable to afford health insurance.

It's no exaggeration. They're dying right now, every day, from causes directly related to having no medical coverage. A report in March by the health care consumer group Families USA found that one of Oregon's estimated 600,000 uninsured residents dies every single day, 365 days a year, as a consequence of having no health insurance.

The ranks of Oregon's uninsured and underinsured are certain to swell in the wake of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon's decision last Tuesday to raise rates by 26 percent for individual insurance plans and by 16 percent for small group plans, which are mostly for small businesses with 50 employees or fewer.

Even the executives in charge of Regence Bluecross acknowledge that the rate increase is evidence of a dysfunctional health care system being devoured by uncontrollable costs. Dr. Bart McMullan, president of Regence BlueCross, said the company lost $21 million to $23 million last year on its individual health care plans.

Therein lies the lion's share of the problem. As long as the United States depends so heavily on a for-profit insurance industry to provide health care coverage for a majority of its citizens, the need to support profits will always play a direct role in the cost of insurance.

In fact, in May the nation's largest publicly traded health plans said they don't plan to temper premium increases for the sake of keeping members on their rolls - particularly not while they are under pressure from Wall Street over "disappointing" earnings.

The Oregon Health Fund Board may be able to offer recommendations to the Legislature that help to contain costs and improve access to coverage. But no state acting alone can solve the structural problems with the U.S. health care system.

Until Congress enacts fundamental reforms, every year an estimated 22,000 uninsured Americans will pay for unaffordable health care with their lives.