uninsured

Cross posted at Daily Kos:

It was eleven o’clock just yesterday morning in the board room of the North Carolina Association of Educators’ offices in Raleigh. Twenty or so community leaders were gathered for a press conference calling for meaningful healthcare reform on a day that would include a vigil by supporters outside of NC Senator Kay Hagan’s office.

Just as the press conference was about to begin, Rhonda’s right hand began to shake.

“I’m going to have a seizure. Call 911.”

This can’t be happening. Not here. Not now.

Seeing that my chair had wheels, I helped Rhonda onto it and pushed it past the twenty or so community leaders gathered to promote meaningful healthcare reform and past the media representatives with their cameras and notepads out of the NCAE Boardroom and into the lobby.

“Call 911!”

To all those moderates and right of center hand-wringers who say that emergency rooms are the ultimate safety net for the uninsured, your delusions have just been dashed.

Patients who lack health insurance are more likely to die from car accidents and other traumatic injuries than people who belong to a health plan -- even though emergency rooms are required to care for all comers regardless of ability to pay, according to a study published today.

An analysis of 687,091 patients who visited trauma centers nationwide from 2002 to 2006 found that the odds of dying from injuries were almost twice as high for the uninsured than for patients with private insurance, researchers reported in Archives of Surgery.

U.S. HHS announced on March 27th, 2009 that they have released $338 million to expand Community Health Centers which is supposed to save jobs and enable them to serve more uninsured patients. For the full article see: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/03/20090327a.html

The total amount that is distributed to Community Health Centers in North Carolina is $8,636,285 to be divided into 27 grants. This money is projected to provide funding for 154 new or retained jobs. It is supposed to pay for the medical care for 41,288 new patients and 26,889 new uninsured patients. To see the breakdown of funding per state see: http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/hrsa/idsgawards.html

I am one of the millions of uninsured Americans. My story is not unique but is complicated and I have shared it openly in multiple venues with multiple media sources to raise awareness of the plight of the uninsured and to advocate for health care reform. For the first time, our nation is having serious discussions on health care reform. In every story I read, in every discussion I hear, people are asked about the costs of the uninsured. I can speak to the personal costs of being uninsured because I have lived that life for too long.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_latimes-what_health.htm

(This information was passed onto me by a reader and in checking it out I found that of those listed among the uninsured are those on Medicaid. Well these are the very poor, unemployed or unemployable and they are indeed covered if they are on Medicaid. So when you subtract the number of people on Medicaid the number of uninsured is considerable less than the figure often given. As for the rest of the information I also did some checking of the Census Bureau and could verify some but not all of the information before my patience ran out. Sorry.

And I know many of you do not want to read this information that is contrary to what you currently believe. I was where you are at one time too. So I know how passionately you feel about the inequities of life. Dear Lord how I know! But as I got more and more information my opinions changed. I DID NOT ACCEPT THIS NEW INFORMATION LIGHTLY. I CHECKED OUT EVERY LITTLE FACT. But eventually knowledge changed my views. I am sincerely not trying to force feed you into changing your views. Please believe this. I am just trying to help you to get more information about a subject you feel is important. AND YOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO READ MY BLOG OR CREDIT ANY OF THE INFORMATION I GIVE. IT IS YOUR CHOICE TO MAKE. Brenda