Children Without Health Insurance More Likely to Die When Hospitalized
Published: April 18, 2011
By: Bedside Angel http://www.bedside-angel.org
Health insurance has been lacking coverage on an increasing number of Americans, even in lieu of Obama’s health reform and Medicare and state coverage. The impact of insurance deficiency has been hard-hitting for near all of American children not covered. It was found that uninsured children had experienced considerable unmet need and delayed care that escalated as the time without insurance increased.
Despite those with parents who have insurance, according to a new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, more than 9 million children in the United States lack health insurance. That number doubles if you include, as many study have, children who have gaps in coverage during the year.
A 2009 New York Times article disclosed uninsured children who wind up in the hospital are much more likely to die than children covered by either private or government insurance plans, according to one of the first studies to assess the impact of insurance coverage on hospitalized children.
As reported by Roni Caryn Rabin, a writer atNew York Times, “Researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center analyzed data from more than 23 million children’s hospitalizations in 37 states from 1988 to 2005. Compared with insured children, uninsured children faced a 60 percent increased risk of dying” the researchers found.
The researchers estimated that at least 1,000 hospitalized children died each year simply because they lacked insurance, accounting for 16,787 of some 38,649 children’s deaths nationwide during the period analyzed. (New York Times 2009).
In accordance, a Better Health article posted by WebMD, stated that gaps in coverage result in poorer health long-term as the number of children deficient of coverage is augmenting at exponential levels and is coupled with harsh consequences. Jennifer DeVoe, MD, DPhil, from Oregon Health and Science University, and colleagues looked at records of 39,588 children and teenagers and found that 3.3% fell into the category of being uninsured (for part or all of the year) with at least one insured parent. Devoe additionally stated “children with parents who had public health coverage were 36% less likely to be uninsured than children whose parents had private insurance.”
Parents with uninsured children have also reported some adverse consequences, attesting “uninsured children to be limited in the extent to which they could participate in various activities specifically because they lacked health insurance, including a reported considerable amount of stress and worry associated with their children’s lack of coverage.” (Public Medicine, NCBI). Families of uninsured children face non-financial access barriers to care such as lack of continuity with a primary care provider and inadequate visit time. In addition to inhibitions of appropriate care seeking, lack of child coverage diminishes provider availability, compromises care content, quality, and satisfaction and ultimately will harm the entire family unit.
Article Sources:
Halterman JS, Montes G, Shone LP, Szilagyi PG.Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Strong Children’s Research Center, Rochester, NY
Fry-Johnson YW, Daniels EC, Levine R, Rust G. Maternal and Child Health Team, National Center of Primary Care, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia
PubMedGov, NCBI. Lave JR, Keane CR, Lin CJ, Ricci EM, Amersbach G, La Vallee CP. Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, PA
RONI CARYN RABINNew York Times
Caroline Wilbert WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Written by JordanB_40
Founder of Bedside angel – a Nonprofit for Children’s Healthcare
www.ala.co.uk Online GAP providers price GAP Insurance competitively, with premiums up to 75% cheaper than dealers. They provide the most comprehensive range of GAP Insurance products, ensuring you get a policy that you really need. No hard sell. Online GAP providers do vary in the products they offer and prices they charge, Google is the best place to find them.
Video Rating: 0 / 5
Related GAP Insurance Articles
GAP insurance
Question by Richard: Does gap insurance work if the accident is my fault?
I haven’t been in an accident yet, but my line of work definitely puts me at risk for being in one (delivering newspapers). I’m frequently on the wrong side of the road putting papers in the boxes, sometimes in blind spots. I’ve got full coverage and GAP insurance. I just need to know whether or not GAP insurance will cover me in the case that a car hits me when I’m on the other side of the road and my car gets totaled.
Best answer:
Answer by Butters leopold S
dude, ask the agent or company you have it through. my instinct is yes, it will always cover you no matter who is responsible for the accident. your risk and the payment you make should be taken into account so that it would cover the gap while you’re upside down for any total loss. but call the insurance company and find out for sure.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Children, Health, Hospitalized, Insurance, Likely, More, Without
As long as you have the PROPER insurance and registration. My wife delivers a country route of home delivery, vending boxes, and stores.
Her car is registered and insured as what is called here “Common Carrier Local”. If she had a GAP policy it would definitely cover. Mind you, as an insurance broker I never sold a GAP policy, they were normally sold by car salesmen with the loan. What I sold was a Price Protection Plus Policy. The difference is, GAP only pays to the level of the loan balance if the insurance settlement is less on a total loss. A PPP policy pays to the original cost, and, on the second year, adds an inflation factor
So what you need to do is check your registration and insurance to ensure you are registered for the proper usage, and insured to cover that usage.
If you have just registered and insured as if you were driving to a regular job, you may end up with a bigger worry than GAP coverage. Check with your insurance broker, he is an expert on what you have, and what you need, in your state or province.
Yes.