22 Year old Dies Uninsured
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| Tue, 09-29-2009 - 9:05am |
Like a large number of young people in this country, this young woman was uninsured. Most young people can't afford private insurance because the jobs they hold don't offer it or don't pay enough. These are kids who haven't yet gotten their first "good" job with benefits. Some are still in college. Some are working p/t while going to school. Some may not, for various reasons, be retained on their parents' health insurance. In any case, most of them rarely earn enough to pay for health insurance so they do without.
Shouldn't there be something in place to protect these young people?
Uninsured 22-Year-Old Boehner Constituent Dies From Swine Flu
A 22-year-old woman from Oxford, Ohio, died from swine flu on Wednesday. Kimberly Young graduated from Miami University in December and continued to live in Oxford, Ohio, within Minority Leader John Boehner’s congressional distrct. Reports now indicate that after initially getting sick, Young put off treatment because she was uninsured:
Young became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost, according to Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Young’s condition suddenly worsened and her roommate drove her to McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford, where she was flown in critical condition to University Hospital in Cincinnati.
“That’s the most tragic part about it. If she had insurance, she would have gone to the doctor,†Mowery said.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 30 percent of 19-24 year olds are uninsured, more than any other group. Despite the conservative argument that young people are voluntarily refusing health coverage in favor of extra spending money, the reality is that high costs on the individual market put coverage out of reach. As Suzy Khimm notes at Campus Progress, young people “are far more likely to be working part-time or lower-paying jobs for employers who don’t offer coverageâ€:
In its 2008 study, the Commonwealth Fund found that 66 percent of young adults aged 19 to 29 who experienced a time without coverage in the past year said they had gone without it because of the cost.
Young people might have a better chance of accessing comprehensive coverage if there were a public plan, which could lower the cost of insurance, particularly for those without good employer benefits. Young people may also have a better chance at coverage if there were generous subsidies for lower-income individuals, as many take lower-paying jobs when they first enter the workforce.
Even though Boehner represents a large university, he has been an outspoken opponent of a public option that would make insurance cheaper and more accessible to recent graduates like Young. On Meet the Press last week, the Minority Leader continued to stick to the obstructionist Frank Luntz-endorsed talking points, dismissing the public option as “big government†while defending a watered-down plan.


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What if the tax increase was much less than what they currently pay in health insurance and copays?
(What if the tax increase was much less than what they currently pay in health insurance and copays?)
Well, I think that would be great. However, our CBO has said that this overhaul will be more expensive. It does absolutely nothing to bring down costs. It does nothing to curb skyrocketing malpractice premiums for doctors but cuts their reimbursements by 40%.
Insurance premiums are expected to rise under this overhaul as well.
Our democratic congress has made a giant mess out of the entire thing. It's one giant cluster%&(*! I am not saying that a republican congress would do any better either.
Also, most people pay very little (in relation to what their employer pays)for their health insurance. When they complain about "COBRA" costs....that's the actual cost of the insurance.
Obama and his administration are making it very difficult for small businesses in this already horrific economy. This will be a jobs killer. It will encourage companies to move overseas where employees are cheaper.
It's just simple economics. Why hire an American worker who will cost $75/hr (includes health benefits and pension) when they can hire a Chinese worker for $2/hr?
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In what way specifically?
Presidential Campaigns Draw Differing Conclusions From Report
Friday, August 13, 2004; Page A04
Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the presidential election campaign.
The CBO study, due to be released today, found that the wealthiest 20 percent, whose incomes averaged $182,700 in 2001, saw their share of federal taxes drop from 64.4 percent of total tax payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year. The top 1 percent, earning $1.1 million, saw their share fall to 20.1 percent of the total, from 22.2 percent.
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Over that same period, taxpayers with incomes from around $51,500 to around $75,600 saw their share of federal tax payments increase. Households earning around $75,600 saw their tax burden jump the most, from 18.7 percent of all taxes to 19.5 percent.
Poor little rich people. And to think, no one watches out for them.
I totally agree with the data you provided.
The top 20% of wage earners still pay 63.5% of all taxes. The bottom 80% of wage earners only pay 36.5% of all taxes.
Thanks for proving my points.
1) that the rich pay the lions share of taxes
2) the mentality is that they "deserve" to pay the lions share and should pay more.
I'm sure this is just one case out of the thousands that occur in this country. I don't know why it takes so long for the United States to change for the better. But then I don't know why this country voted twice for BUSH! I fear we are not going to get the public option and this inhumanity will persist for years to come.
They deserve to pay their fair share. Maybe it hasn't occurred to you, but we working class folks are paying taxes for ourselves AND for those who have offshored their money in tax shelters. Billions of American dollars never get a dime of tax paid on them. Who picks up the slack for these pigs who think just because THEY have money THEY should be exempt from paying taxes?
It's the rest of us who pick up that slack. The rest of us who don't have the luxury of hiding our money in a bank on the Isle of Man and smiling while we buy yet another million dollar home outside the US (who wants to pay real estate taxs in America) or take our business and jobs to some foreign country so we can exploit the cheap labor? Only the wealthy have the luxury of manipulating money to their advantage in order to make more and keep more. The rest of us simply work and have no alternative but to pay what the government orders us to.
Don't give me the sob story of the rich. Wall Street screwed the rest of us over 15 ways to Sunday, and they made a massive fortune doing it. Then they had the guts and the gall to also take our tax dollars to bail themselves out when their bubble busted.
Lion's share, my foot. In a time of economic hardship in this country, there are currently more billionaires in America that ever before. Coincidence?
You're also paying trillions of dollars for
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