Health For Louisiana: Kids Without Insurance 60% More Likely To Die While Hospitalized

Kids Without Insurance 60% More Likely To Die While Hospitalized

The Johns Hopkins Childrens Center in Baltimore, MD recently released a study comparing the health outcomes of children who were hospitalized due to illness or injury. According to the study, children who lacked health insurance were an almost unbelievable 60% more likely to die during their hospitalizations than children who had health insurance coverage. Upon further statistical analysis, controlling for variables such as age, gender, and race, the study still noted that uninsured children were more than 37% more likely to die than their insured counterparts.

U.S. News and World Report followed up on the study:

David C. Chang, co-director of the pediatric surgery outcomes research group at Hopkins and a study co-author, said he could not think of a medical treatment that has such a dramatic impact on health outcomes as health insurance seemingly does.
"This is actually something we as a society ... can choose to do something about," he said. "It's literally with the stroke of somebody's pen, this could be changed."
The article was published online Oct. 30 in the Journal of Public Health.
Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus, a bipartisan child and family advocacy group, noted that data from the U.S. Institute of Medicine have shown that people who are uninsured have a higher mortality rate.
"You knew that it existed, you knew that there were cases [of child deaths related to lack of insurance], but I think this data is pretty shocking and really points to the need for national health reform," Lesley said.

This study's results suggest that more than 17,000 children may have died needlessly over the past two decades, due to their lack of health insurance.

Even critics of health insurance reform have historically balked at the idea of leaving children uninsured, but it is time that we as a society take a deeper look at the needs of our nation's families. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that as a result of reform, all American children will be covered by some form of health insurance. That would be a laudable result - but it simply does not go far enough. If we really want to protect children in America, then we must protect families and individuals as well. What happens to those same children if their parents become too ill or injured to work, or lose their jobs, or any number of potential tragedies occur? What good does it do to protect children if we will not protect their own parents, or family members, or teachers, or social workers?

The fact is that in order to fully protect our children from the tragedies that recent years have shown are all too possible, we need to protect everyone in their society. We must provide basic coverage to anyone who comes into contact with our children - and that simply means everyone. If every other industrialized nation in the world can accomplish it, there is simply no acceptable reason why the United States should not.

How Louisiana's Position Matters:

As U.S. News and World Report noted, one of the first official acts of President Obama's administration was to renew funding for CHIP - Children's Health Insurance Program. CHIP allows American children to be enrolled in a program providing basic medical coverage and preventive check-ups (AKA socialized medicine).

But Senator Landrieu - who could choose to be a driving force for reform - is essentially dragging her political feet on the health care issue. Rather than support universal health care options for everyone, the senator refers her constituents to a bill which she co-sponsored, called the Healthy Americans Act. The title of her bill sounds great, but the contents show that the bill is actually designed to accomplish something far less impressive. Senator Landrieu's bill would actually end CHIP for Louisiana's children. It would also end health benefits provided by federal programs, including coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits.

Call or write Senator Landrieu today! Tell her to stop pushing the Healthy Americans Act, which would achieve anything but your and my health. If she's really interested in health care reform, well, she has many other more effective bills to choose from right now!

Senator Landrieu:

Washington, DC

328 Hart Senate Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Voice: