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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You are correct in saying I dont want every detail of my paycheck here on show, but i have told you the taxes i pay, and where to find out what taxes in accordance to salary is if you want to go check it out. I am not entirely sure what all of these 'social programs' are that you are talking about. Maybe you could clarify?
If our health system is so bad, why would I be defending it? Our health system is extremely praiseworthy, and works by keeping everyone healthy, not just those who can afford it. Your healthcare system is already one of the most expensive in the world, and many people become ill and stay ill simply because they cannot afford to see a doctor, and in this case this poor young girl died. That would not have happened here, and many other cases similar to that would not have happened.
There are many more pros to cons to this, you simply cannot see it.
Previous experience with "affordable" health insurance policies.
Too many undesirable consequences from those policies.
<<If i am seriously ill or in an accident I feel good knowing i will not have to pay anything. I can go to the hospital, be treated, then go home. I saw earlier someone mentioned a man who had to pay for the helicopter, we also don't pay for anything like that. Doctors and nurses are all extremely friendly and as someone said before, they are there to keep me as healthy as possible, not only to treat me if i am sick. And this is for everyone, regardless of income, regardless if they are unemployed or a student.>>>
Ditto for Canada, with a few exceptions:
I can't always get in to see my doctor that same day, but our after-hours clinics run every weekday evening, and all day Saturday. And there's always the option of going to the hospital (any time you want, but most especially) when the doctor's offices and clinics are closed.
Prescriptions are a little more expensive, but still affordable.
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ITA! It's one thing to stay at home when you have a cold, or even flu that is without complications, but for the others, particularly the infections, it could have turned deadly. Take infection seriously!
I had a bad experience where my DS' slightly infected ingrown toenail became blood poisoning all within a day. It was pretty scary.
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The benefits are that we get preventative medicine and health care so that we stay as healthy as possible. If we do get sick, we're taken care of, and nobody is denied nor do they go bankrupt paying health care bills.
I can only address the lies if I know what they are. If you toss me some, I'll tell you how it really is.
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"Myth: Taxes in Canada are extremely high, mostly because of national health care.
In actuality, taxes are nearly equal on both sides of the border. Overall, Canada's taxes are slightly higher than those in the U.S. However, Canadians are afforded many benefits for their tax dollars, even beyond health care (e.g., tax credits, family allowance, cheaper higher education), so the end result is a wash. At the end of the day, the average after-tax income of Canadian workers is equal to about 82 percent of their gross pay. In the U.S., that average is 81.9 percent.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427#ixzz0ZmhTHoLm"
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427
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I have a really hard time believing that. That would NEVER happen in Canada (and the UK's system seems better than ours). There are plenty of people who wait a long time at the ER, but they are the snifflers, who are likely there because they need a doctor's note to miss work and can't get in to their regular doctor, yet they are still seen that same day.
The time my DS had blood poisoning, we got straight in (like 2 or 3 minutes wait).
The time he had a high fever (104F) because of an ear infection, maybe a 10 minute wait.
The time that my step-son's front teeth were all but knocked out during a recess soccer game, straight in (we're talking seconds this time).
Our ER is organized on a triage basis. Snifflers will wait hours, and broken bones, heart attacks, gushing wounds, raging infection, ect will be seen immediately.
I'm sure that the US' ERs do triage as well.
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Where did you pull that number from? Are you trying to say that Canadians or the British pay out 50% of their salary for health care.
Income tax (in Canada) is not nearly that much:
"Federal tax rates for 2009 are:
* 15% on the first $40,726 of taxable income, +
* 22% on the next $40,726 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income between $40,726 and $81,452), +
* 26% on the next $44,812 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income between $81,452 and $126,264), +
* 29% of taxable income over $126,264."
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html
And only a portion of the income tax is spent on healthcare. Here's a link to pie charts detailing how our income tax is spent:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/taxdollar06/text/html/taxdollar06_-eng.asp
Thanks, your post is extremely helpful.
I used that number because that's what the Obama administration wants to tax "rich" people.
My point of all of this was that Americans all want healthcare reform....they just want somebody else to pay for it. They have a mentality that somehow the "rich" deserve to pay for it....because they are rich and evil and bad and somehow got their wealth off of the backs of the poor.
If all Americans had to pay more taxes to pay for this healthcare reform, not so many of them would be for it.
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