Health Insurance Articles
Lack Of Health Insurance Blamed For 17,000 Children's Deaths
2009-11-04
Imagine, a typical school district -19 elementary schools, seven middle schools and three high schools with a total enrollment of approximately 17,000 students. That number of children purposefully equates to the number of lives lost in the United States, due to the lack of health insurance coverage over a two-decade span. Doctors from Johns Hopkins Children's Center recently released a study suggesting this in The Journal of Public Health. The findings were generated from research, completed over the past twenty years. Those conducting the study gathered information from a collection of 23 million health records from 37 states during the years of 1988 through 2005.
The research found that during this comprehensive 20-year study, children without health insurance coverage were more likely to die from their illness than those children with medical insurance. Part of the study explained that parents without health insurance coverage tended to wait longer to seek medical intervention for their children. In several cases, this delay caused the eventual treatment to be more intense - costing more or not timely enough to save lives. "If you are a child without insurance, if you're seriously ill and end up in the hospital, you are 60 percent more likely to die than the sick child in the next room who has insurance," said lead investigator Fizan Abdullah, M.D., Ph.D., pediatric surgeon at Hopkins Children's.
The writers of the report went so far as to say that, with seven million children in this country without insurance, this problem needs immediate attention. "In a country as wealthy as ours, the need to provide health care to the millions of children who lack it is a moral, not an economic imperative," said Peter Pronovost, co-author, and director of critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins. This study has fueled the fire on the health care debates concerning affordable health care for all in American citizens. The timeline imposed by President Obama is quickly approaching. The end of the year deadline seeks Congressional approval to cover 47 million Americans. Of that 47 million, it is estimated that approximately 15 percent do not have current medical coverage. The Republican counter attack is charging that the cost of the government plan for health care is an exorbitantly expensive addition to the government budget.
A question comes to mind concerning the 37 states and numerous schools in the United States represented by the data. In the wake of losing all the children in their community, do you think the cost of mandated health insurance coverage would be seen as too costly? Affordable health insurance will cost either the country lives or money. What will be the outcome for the children now?
