posted on March 13, 2007 12:14:03 AM new
Warning to neocons: The following article contains logic, common sense, caring and compassion for children...you may want to avoid it at all costs...
Thomas Hellmich and David Aughey: Let's wait no longer to cover all kids
What if, effective tomorrow, 70,000 Minnesotans awakened to find they had no health insurance?
That would be a nightmare for the suddenly uninsured. For the 70,000 Minnesota children who have no health insurance, it is the day-in, day-out reality.
While lawmakers and opinion shapers debate how to cover Minnesota's uninsured children -- and how many to insure -- we ask this: Please listen to the pediatricians.
Along with our colleagues, we see children without insurance every day. Our reality is a story that needs to be heard.
We see parents who delay treatment, hoping symptoms will disappear rather than worsen.
Here's just one example: A parent waited several days before seeking medical treatment for her uninsured child's skin infection. Had the child been seen at the onset of symptoms, comparatively inexpensive antibiotics would have been all that was needed. Instead, the severity of the infection necessitated a costly, three-day hospitalization.
Some of our recollections haunt us. We think of the parent, who worked full time, who was forced to choose between rent or health insurance for the family. One of the children had been ill for several months by the time the family sought care at one of our clinics. The diagnosis? A brain tumor, requiring emergency surgery to relieve pressure inside the skull. The child later died.
We have a combined total of 38 years of experience treating children, mostly at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, which cares for more children than any other organization in the state. The impact on children who have no insurance has been exhaustively and conclusively researched; pediatricians have a front-row seat to the human toll.
We know that uninsured children aren't as healthy as their peers with coverage. That's partly because they're more than five times likelier to have at least one unmet need for medical care; they are more than three times likelier to go without the prescription drugs they need. Even when injured, they're more than 30 percent less likely to be treated by a medical professional.
The well-child checkup is a standard in good pediatric care; last year, half of all uninsured children didn't have one. Because their health is poorer, children without insurance miss more school and are more vulnerable to falling behind academically. The uninsured depend more on emergency rooms for care. The already-fraying safety net of U.S. emergency rooms simply cannot withstand that trend.
These aren't bad parents. While we assure them that children are never denied care at Children's because of lack of insurance, it's still tough for families. Despite those assurances, we see the pain in parents' eyes when they plead with us to cobble together a medically sound alternative to hospitalizing their child -- even though that would guarantee the best treatment -- for fear of the costs. That's a quandary for us, too.
They're caught in a gap. They make too much to be eligible for state-sponsored health coverage but too little to afford a private or employer-sponsored health plan. Even to determine eligibility, they face a pointlessly daunting application form that goes on page after page. Contrary to some perceptions, these are hardworking families; most have at least one adult in the household holding down a full-time job -- or more than one job.
The U.S. health system is in a crisis. We realize that employers are in a jam as the cost of providing health insurance spirals out of control, with no relief in sight. We also recognize that Minnesota, compared with many other states, has done a laudable job in providing coverage for many children through Medicaid. It's a good investment, since children tend to be healthier. Keeping them healthy with insurance makes them considerably less expensive to cover. They're far likelier to grow into healthy adulthood.
Yet that's cold comfort to the families whose children remain uninsured. And we wish to remind Minnesotans that no matter how broken the health care system is, children did not break it. Tomorrow, someone in our hospital will care for a child with no insurance. Listen to the pediatricians: Can we wait any longer to cover all children?
Thomas Hellmich and David Aughey are pediatricians at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. Hellmich is medical director of emergency care; Aughey is medical director of adolescent care at Children's Teen Age Medical Services.
posted on March 13, 2007 12:19:46 PM newThey're caught in a gap. They make too much to be eligible for state-sponsored health coverage but too little to afford a private or employer-sponsored health plan. Even to determine eligibility, they face a pointlessly daunting application form that goes on page after page. Contrary to some perceptions, these are hardworking families; most have at least one adult in the household holding down a full-time job -- or more than one job.
posted on March 13, 2007 12:50:42 PM new
Yes, good article, Mingo. It illustrates how you can be hard-working, but still not be able to afford the astronomical price of health insurance. Some think that people make a choice of health insurance or a big screen TV--and pick the TV. It is usually a choice of rent or food vs. health insurance. And children suffer for this. Inexcusable.
