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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(I pay a tax from my wages,...))
There lies the problem. The middle class here doesn't want to actually pay for this. They want other people to pay for this. You know...the rich people.
I would love to know how much you pay annually in taxes in relation to what you make.
I also have a friend who moved to England. Her son broke his arm badly in a rugby game. She had to take him to the doctor every day for 5 days....with no luck of being seen. She finally flew back to America to get his arm set and cast. Hmmmm.....that didn't sound too fantastic to me. She was VERY disappointed with the system there.
Did your friend have the money to pay for that broken arm once she came back to America?
"Now there's a perfectly good idea to help insure people. If I want to pay for my son, my best friend, my Aunt Matilda, etc., under a group policy at work why shouldn't that be possible? The insurance company would be collecting the premiums. It's not like it would be free."
Usually employers who offer group plans are paying various portions of the premiums. My guess is they would not be thrilled at the prospect of covering tons of non-employees who don't contribute to their business.
"The middle class here doesn't want to actually pay for this. They want other people to pay for this. You know...the rich people."
So you mean the middle class want completely free healthcare? Where do you think the cost of running hospitals, paying doctors etc, paying for medicines is going to come from? So just because someone earns more money they should have to pay for the middle class medical care?
I'm sure I am misinterpreting that, perhaps you could explain further.
Just to clarify, it is not a tax on top of insurance. We simply do not pay insurance, everything is paid from that tax and heavily subsidized by the government.
"Her son broke his arm badly in a rugby game. She had to take him to the doctor every day for 5 days....with no luck of being seen. She finally flew back to America to get his arm set and cast."
I have never heard of anything like that happening. I am sorry that happened to your friend, the waiting time in A&E is generally determined according to seriousness. If there were lots of people worse off they would been seen first even if they arrived after your friend, and at times it can take a few hours to be seen.
Although in my opinion if his arm was that bad then they should not have left the hospital till he was seen, or simply drive to different hospital. In most places another one would be not much more than an hour away.
I am sure it must have been extremely inconvenient to fly to America, I fly there at least 3 times a year, and it can take 12 hours on the plane alone. Then there is the cost of the flight, and I am assuming if she is living in England she has no insurance in the US to pay for the medical care?
" Hmmmm.....that didn't sound too fantastic to me. "
In my opinion, what she actually ended up doing sounds much worse. All she had to do was wait a few hours in A&E and she would have had it for free.
edited to add this link, some of you might find it insightful into the NHS
http://www.nhs.uk/choiceinthenhs/Pages/choicehome.aspx
Edited 12/14/2009 10:10 am ET by clara_maria
Edited 12/14/2009 10:13 am ET by clara_maria
***There lies the problem. The middle class here doesn't want to actually pay for this. They want other people to pay for this. You know...the rich people.****
I'm so sick of this lie. I don't know ONE middle class family that expect "free" healthcare. NOT ONE!!! Also, every middle class family I know pays taxes, just like ours does.
Sometimes it's all I can do not to light into the snobby rich people that tell LIES about the rest of us. But they are our customers and I have to put up with their BS.
""""The middle class here doesn't want to actually pay for this. They want other people to pay for this. You know...the rich people. """
How about backing up this claim of yours that the middle class doesn't want to pay for their health insurance?
Are you a spokesperson for the entire middle class??
Amazing.
Thank you for paying for that man's prescription that was really thoughtful.
That was a very kind act.
((How about backing up this claim of yours that the middle class doesn't want to pay for their health insurance?))
Okay, let's do a little survey then. How many middle class people on these boards are comfortable having their taxes increased to 50% of their salary to pay for this healthcare reform?
Or, how many middle class would rather "stick it to the rich guy" and make HIM pay for the healthcare reform for America? Because that's the way congress feels about it.
Hey, if I get enough responses stating that every middle class person on these boards would be okay with their taxes being increased substantially to pay for healthcare reform, I will draft a petition to congress and get them to listen to the middle class and raise our taxes to pay for this.
Sound fair?
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