Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Comments

  1. without health insurance in the US and 18,000 of them die each year for similar reasons. The anti-health crowd has the audacity to debate how many million are citizens and insinuate they are some how undeserving.

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    p>Do you believe putting a face on the problem will make a difference?  The fact that her death was so easily preventable makes it even more tragic. Very, very sad.

    • Tragic story. Beautiful woman with a full life ahead.

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      p>But let’s not overlook the fact that Ms. Young twice received medical treatment.  

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      p>If she had health insurance would a doctor have treated her any differently when she presented with flu symptoms? Unknown.

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      p>There is a medicine available to treat H1N1, but it is unlikely Kimmi would have been eligible until her condition became serious. From the CDC:

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      During the current pandemic, the priority use for influenza antiviral drugs is to treat severe influenza illness (for example hospitalized patients) and people who are sick who have a condition that places them at high risk for serious flu-related complications.

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      p>More from the CDC:

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      While the disease seen in the current 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak has been mild for many people, it has been severe and even fatal for others. There is no way to predict with certainty what the outcome will be for an individual or, equally important, for others to whom the intentionally infected person may spread the virus.

      Source: http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm

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      p>Let’s not politicize this. Ms. Young may have died even with insurance and it would have been no less tragic. Staying home and initially trying self-care is both the logical and recommended way of dealing with influenza. She did seek and receive medical care, but the seriousness of her case was missed. The reasons are unknown. From the article, there is no reason to believe lack of insurance contributed to the missed diagnosis.

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      p>The message I think we should be getting is that you need to advocate for yourself when visiting the doctor.  

      • Having passed by Thayer Academy this morning to see the satellite trucks out getting their background shots to report on the death of the Hingham student (at the very same Miami of Ohio), not quite sure politicizing the death of Kimi Young is a legitimate rallying cry.  Think it is more a point that we shouldn’t think CDC is crying wolf about swine flu.  

        • Earlier this week, it was reported that another Miami student had died of the disease, but the Toledo Blade reported on Saturday that the tests were negative for the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu.

          Kimi Young, 22, died Tuesday after she became ill with viral pneumonia. Friends and family had said that they were told Young died from complications of swine flu.

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          p>source:  http://www.patriotledger.com/l…

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          p>Not to diminish her death in any way, but does correct her cause of death.

        • Did you notice KIMI was working two jobs to pay off educational loans and delayed treatment due to COST?  Just wondering, y’know?

      • Quite frankly, this sounds like the favorite cop-out of those opposed to covering everybody.  Yes, we know anybody can be treated eventually, but that usually requires resorting to the emergency room then passing the bill on to the rest of us.  Doing such is less moral AND less efficient than covering everyone to begin with.  The first sentence of the story says she delayed seeking treatment, which almost always leads to a worse situation whether it be flu, cancer, infection, etc.  Even given the revised cause of death refered to in another comment, pneumonia need not be fatal either.  So sure, it’s easy to say you should seek medical attention, but it doesn’t come cheap.  We also can’t prove counterfactuals of course, but common sense suggests that earlier detection of any of these possible causes could have easily saved her life.  Darn right I want to politicize this.  Stories like this are a lot easier for most people to understand than a bunch of dry statistics.

    • You make it sound as if everyone “with” medical insurance is immune to the H1N1 virus or any other medical malady to boot. Why not jump on the same bandwagons as Obama as he portrays people dying of cancer… because they lack medical insurance while people die by the thousands with the best medical insurance.

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      p>Pathetic and not very different from Jay, Michael, Rush, Beck and other righties who tie rapes and murders to illegal aliens as if removing illegals will somehow evaporate crime.

      • is unconscionable.  
        10’s of millions of people in the US are without health care and 18,000 people die each year due to lack of health insurance.

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        p>Instead of producing shock, the Republican leader Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”  

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        p>Who’s playing politics with people’s lives?

        • For the uninsured, it’s worse because a simple cold can turn into a raging infection. For the insured who believe they’re covered, it’s often a rude awakening when a family member becomes ill and the insurance companies stop covering them. More bankruptcies are caused by medical debt that any other single reason.  

          • What I would like someone who knows more than I do to explain is why, when our healthcare is “the most expensive in the world” – and some claim, the best in the world – life expectancy in the USA is 49th.  

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            p>Something smells like rotting fish about that disparity.  

      • …to spend money to see a doctor – esp. if they are already working two jobs to pay off college debt.

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        p>I would say in trying to portray sharing this which showcases the hard realities of the cost of today’s college for such young people who are bootstrapping themselves as you once did, John as like Rush’s hate speech is once again comparing watermelons with swamp grass.

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        p>If basic health care [such as seeing a doctor when you cannot breath normally] was viewed as “like public safety” – as it should be – Kimmi would more likely than not still be alive.

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        p>In fact, this is sooooooooo different than what your hate-speech heros do that I consider your post disingenuous – and a deliberate attempt to distort.

      • that the decision to seek medical care for a condition should be based on the medical issues involved and not based on economic factors?  This is what Democrats mean when they say that quality affordable health care should be a right and not a privilege.

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        p>I don’t mean that people should be given a blank check for any type of medical care.  However, when a serious medical situation occurs, whether or not one can afford the payment should not be a determining factor in seeking care.  Maybe that did or did not happen in this case, but we know it is happening regularly in this country.

    • Which is why in this state we have Yolanda’s law, Melissa’s law, etc.

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      p>It is human nature that it is easier to turn away from a problem without “a face on it.”

      • Which is why in this state we have Yolanda’s law, Melissa’s law, etc.

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        p>I wonder if the people who object to “playing politics” with Kimi also objected to playing politics with Yolanda and Melissa and the other crime victims used to drum up support for various pieces of mean spirited legislation, quickly passed as a gut reaction to horrible crimes,with little or no thought if the laws would actually reduce criminal behavior.

    • But either way, the problem has a face. Better to see one, I’d say. The argument that it politicizes the debate is posturing by the other side.

  2. While patients like Kimmi are reluctant to seek medical care due to the prohibitive costs associated with visits, prescriptions, and workups, there’s also the provider’s side.  Sensitive providers, knowing that a patient is self-pay, often will delay or entirely forego a work-up, choosing, instead, to err on the side of wait-and-see.  Rarely, of course, does this sort of sensitivity to financial burden result in death, but it certainly does factor into the timing of a work-up.  Never mind the large numbers of patients lost to follow-up who never return to the clinician because they know that the deferred diagnostic test will be waiting and they can’t afford it.  

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    p>During my years in health care, I frequently encountered providers trying desperately to balance the needs of a self-pay patient with the need to provide quality care.  Neither the patient nor the provider should be placed in the position of having to make responsible clinical decisions based on a person’s ability to pay.    

  3. It’s unfortunate that Kimmi was taken away so young, and that she was one of the 50 million uninsured people here in the  United States.  Kimberly Young’s  unfortunate and untimely death underscores the need to seek professional medical help before symptoms get serious.

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