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Lack of Health Care Led to 17,000 US Child Deaths

Thursday 29 October 2009

by:   |  Agence France-Presse

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A new study says that 17,000 US children have died over the past two decades as a result of lacking adequate health insurance. (Photo: delayed gratification / flickr)

Washington - Lack of adequate health care may have contributed to the deaths of some 17,000 US children over the past two decades, according to a study released by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

The research, to be published Friday in the Journal of Public Health, was compiled from more than 23 million hospital records from 37 states between 1988 and 2005.

The study concluded that children without health insurance are far more likely to succumb to their illnesses than those with medical coverage.

To read more about this alarming study that has come to light as the US is embroiled in a debate over the future of health care access, click here.

  

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We would save more lives by

 Fri, 10/30/2009 - 18:38 β€” radline9 (not verified)
We would save more lives by having healthcare instead of warfare.

I am much too disgusted to

 Fri, 10/30/2009 - 21:42 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
I am much too disgusted to even try to express my outrage over what this country is doing to its' people. We can waste Billions on unnecessary and instigated wars, bailouts, cash for clunkers, supporting Israel, buying more and more senseless weapons, etc. Need I go on...and cannot afford health care for all of the citizens in this land. Yet we are bankrupt so this country can be the Biggest, Baddest Barn Yard Dog on this earth. I may puke !

agreed radline9 ! all that

 Fri, 10/30/2009 - 21:58 β€” you know who (not verified)
agreed radline9 ! all that money being dumped into the DOD , corporate welfare , farm subsidies .........could have paid for health care already.

Idiots. Anyone can get care

 Sat, 10/31/2009 - 00:04 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Idiots. Anyone can get care if they must have it.

The right doesn't care about

 Sat, 10/31/2009 - 01:14 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
The right doesn't care about those children because they weren't "unborn" at the time of their deaths. It's too bad. If only they hadn't been born yet... Oh well, as the right likes to say, "let the market decide". I guess the market decided that those children's lives were not worth saving. It's a tough sell when wanting to save the lives of children makes you a godless communist.

How come NOBODY speaks of

 Sat, 10/31/2009 - 13:15 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
How come NOBODY speaks of over-population anymore? Sometimes one should listen closely for what is NOT being said. There's more than one way to skin a cat, y'know? And, indeed, sometimes one has a very hard time seeing the forest for the trees.

Now where are all the

 Sat, 10/31/2009 - 16:05 β€” Lice-Christ (not verified)
Now where are all the loudmouth, pro-fetus, screaming, hysterical, gun-waving, church-going, Christ-saved, Christian-Republicans who are always ready to defend "the rights of the unborn?" They're not around, are they! You'd think they'd be going off the deep end about this, but the truth is: they couldn't give a damn. Here's the scoop: they're merely puritanical, anti-pleasure, hateful, sex-loathing, patriarchal misogynists and their activism against abortion and fight for the "rights of the unborn" is a masquerade; a joke; a ploy; an excuse; merely to punish women who enjoy having non-marital sex by forcing them to the deliver babies that are secondarily conceived and not wanted - and that they have every right not to want to deliver and therefore abort - with the hope that after birth these babies might become new fodder for their churches.

I honestly don't know one

 Sat, 10/31/2009 - 17:05 β€” Hikerdudette (not verified)
I honestly don't know one Republican who does not have health care. Could this be the reason they don't want others to have it? They might get less care. Why would anyone not want people to have medical care?

The simple solution is for

 Mon, 11/02/2009 - 18:23 β€” Carlton (not verified)
The simple solution is for Obama to start over and slay the health insurance dragons one at a time. First, a campaign to "insure every child." Few would oppose that, because its hard to argue the "personal responsibility" concept for children. Parents with insured children would support the idea of a govt. backup in case they lose their job. No thousand page bill, just one page to make all citizens age 17 and younger automatically eligible for Medicaid. When hospitals issue birth cert. and social security cards, they will include a Medicaid card. Most children will never need it, but it will be there. This eliminates a few billion dollars in overhead for enrolling and confirming Medicaid eligibility. This is sure thing to pass, then tackle other issues. Just do this one first, alone, one page.

If parents cannot afford to

 Thu, 11/05/2009 - 23:46 β€” Arminius Aurelius (not verified)
If parents cannot afford to properly care for children , The man should be castrated and the woman sterilized . I don't work 12 hours a day in order to succeed and then be forced to pay extra taxes in order to support these " poor " a.k.a. lazy and STUPID people.