22 Year old Dies Uninsured

Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
22 Year old Dies Uninsured
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Tue, 09-29-2009 - 9:05am
Doctors say now that she died, not from swine flu, but from viral pneumonia, but the cause is less relevant than the fact that she died at all.
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

hjnyoungkimberly09-_568332bA 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 coverage”:



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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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2009
Wed, 12-16-2009 - 1:40pm

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Possibly!

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Different from what you first said, but again possibly.

You are worrying about possibilities, but have no concrete facts. It smacks of "fear of the unknown" and "better the devil I know than the devil I don't".

Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 12-16-2009 - 2:02pm

There is a place in heaven for you, you know. You are a wonderful human being, and I'm sure that man was surprised and grateful.


I wrote you a longer response to your message yesterday, and when I hit Preview it vanished. So, I'm just going to say yours was one of the best posts I've read in a very long time. There is a disgusting attitude in this country that a person only matters if their bank account could buy a small island and their stock portfolio is bulging.


What a shame that those of us who actually work for a living are the ones who seem to keep getting kicked around and made to do with less and less.

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Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 12-17-2009 - 8:14am

I work in a hospital environment - the the ER. Average wait time for patients is

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2009
Thu, 12-17-2009 - 8:58am

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For those who wait that amount of time, what's wrong with them? What's brought them to the hospital ER?

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These people shouldn't even have come in. Who goes to the ER for a stuffy nose?

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It's not horrible at all, I've never known anyone who got less than excellent care. I wish that someone would give me specifics so that I could either say, "That doesn't happen", or "We get that same level of care here as well", but all I hear are vague ideas of what might happen to the US, and outrageous horror stories.

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If you don't change, you'll stagnate, right?

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Nah, people in the US aren't that different from anyone else in the world. I think that it's a front to hide fear. If Obama (or any other US leader to come about) were to pull it off (get universal healthcare implemented properly), you'd (general you) all be praising it for how it helps your country as a whole. Of course, you (again, general you) can't back up something that is thought to be too scary to try.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2009
Thu, 12-17-2009 - 9:23am

These people shouldn't even have come in. Who goes to the ER for a stuffy nose?


One of the problems here is that people go to the E/R for minor ailments because they can't afford a doctor.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2009
Thu, 12-17-2009 - 9:54am

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I think that's common throughout the developed world. Healthcare so accessible that it's accessed even when it's not needed. I often wish that the triage nurse at the ER, or the nurse/receptionist at the after-hours clinic was allowed tell people with colds/mild flu to just "Go home!".

Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 12-18-2009 - 8:34am

<<>>


These people shouldn't even have come in. Who goes to the ER for a stuffy nose?


Are you kidding?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2009
Fri, 12-18-2009 - 8:52am

((Another reason is because many healthcare insurance companies won't cover the cost of going to an urgent care center (doc in a box), because they want to force patients to see their PCP. (This idea backfired on the insurance companies). It can often be inconvenient to get to a PCP, so patients just go to the ER. In the long run, it's more expensive for the patient AND the insurer.))

This is an excellent point. What do you think is going to happen when the government MANDATES 50 million new patients get insurance (or whatever the number is today...it changes almost daily)? The government is doing nothing to help an already overburdened PCP. They are, however, cutting his salary by 40%. The government is doing nothing to add new doctors into the system or even make it a desirable field to go into, therefore, there is a big pending doctor shortage coming.

The way the government is going about this healthcare reform will make things MUCH worse....not better.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Fri, 12-18-2009 - 9:54am

Sometimes this is what happens when a child can't poop. It becomes an intestinal blockage and they die.


http://www.theunion.com/article/20091121/OBITUARIES/911219999/1046&parentprofile=1058



Saturday, November 21, 2009


Lives Lived: Ryder Hurst



















ENLARGE



Baby Ryder Charles Hurst died Nov. 18 in Sacramento. He was 2 months old.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27, at Hooper and Weaver Mortuary in Nevada City. Ryder will be laid to rest next to his Grandpa Terry to watch over him.

He was born on Aug. 19 in Grass Valley to Candice Lola Hurst.

Everyone he met instantly fell in love with him. He loved listening to his mommy sing off key, playing in the bath with his grandma and listening to his grandpa's stories.

Ryder is survived by his mother Candice Hurst of Grass Valley; grandparents Wayne and Pamela Rogers of Grass Valley; aunts and uncles Jake Rogers of Grass Valley, Justin Rogers of Oklahoma, Shane Hurst of North San Juan, and Jessika Oleniczak of Las Vegas; great-grandparents Bill and Joyce Hurst and Barbara Carpenter; and many other loving relatives.

He was preceded in death by his grandpa Terry Alan Hurst in 2000.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Ryder Charles Hurst memorial fund and can be left at Renegade Classics, 744 Maltman Drive, Grass Valley, or any branch of El Dorado Savings Bank.

Arrangements are under the direction of Hooper and Weaver Mortuary.



iVillage Member
Registered: 12-13-2009
Fri, 12-18-2009 - 6:34pm

What about this poor man? He was dying of a heart attack in the

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