17 year old dies of coronavirus after being denied treatment due to lack of insurance.

grasping the after wind said:

They need to e tell the truth whatever the truth may be. The cause of death was the cause of death and a pretend investigation meant to fool people would be shameful.

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Reading this news article with the information, all the officials just sound confused and like they're arguing with each other me
Teen's death no longer counted among Los Angeles County’s coronavirus total

Hank77 said:

We all know that headlines are written to draw attention to an article.
What would your headline say?

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"17 year-old with corona virus dies in hospital." Now if I were to put a right wing spin on it "17 year old with Chinese virus dies of unknown cause after going to the wrong facility"

JCFantasy23 said:

Reading this news article with the information, all the officials just sound confused and like they're arguing with each other me
Teen's death no longer counted among Los Angeles County’s coronavirus total

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So then they sound like typical officials.

the law in the states as far as I know, they DON'T have to treat life threatening stuff, only if it's a imediate threat, they don't have to treat your cancer, a bulletwound they have to treat, but only till your stable, someone with coronavirus but not in imediate danger may not have to be treated. They only need to stabalize you. As disgusting as this is but saw it mentioned recently in a discussion about this stuff.

essentialsaltes said:

Headlines are often condensed. Inserting "initially reported as a case of" is just not going to work.

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Also tend to be sensationalized.

JCFantasy23 said:

Children can easily get it, it just doesn't usually affect them that much. It's mainly safer for those under 9, and he was 17. It is very sad, and of course scary, but there is not a point of hiding the statistics of who really dies and their ages. He was quite young to have died from it but we seem to be seeing more "young deaths", at least from recent articles. People are theorizing that change with American numbers with differences in our percentages.

Edited to add: American and Europe with this trend, not just America, and they are focusing on higher hospitalization rate for the younger than 65 here, in critical condition, not just higher death rate.

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Thanks, yes, I should have been clearer. I didn't mean they could get it at all.


I think what I boldened in your post is very important. I think some people have it in their heads that it's only old people who get very sick and need ventilators but it's not. People in their 30s and 40s are getting seriously ill and are in ICUs.

grasping the after wind said:

They need to e tell the truth whatever the truth may be. The cause of death was the cause of death and a pretend investigation meant to fool people would be shameful.

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I agree they need to tell the truth when they know what the truth is.

grasping the after wind said:

"17 year-old with corona virus dies in hospital." Now if I were to put a right wing spin on it "17 year old with Chinese virus dies of unknown cause after going to the wrong facility"

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That wasn't the point of the article. The point was he couldn't get care or even tested when he needed to.

essentialsaltes said:

Phew, I'm sooo relieved to hear that the teen who was refused medical treatment for lack of insurance might have died of something other than coronavirus.

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It's not a hospital....it's an urgent care clinic.

You're not suggesting that every doctor has to treat whomever stumbles through their doors...are you?

In the early days of virus in the UK (i.e. up to about 2 weeks ago), all deaths were reported as 'the person had underlying medical conditions'. And I think everyone was elderly.

From this thread, it would seem that the USA is no-where ready for what you will be facing in the next week. Look at what is happening in Italy, Spain, France. And in a few days, we will see if the UK fares any better (a fortnight ago, we had had 11 deaths, now it's 759 - still low compared to Italy). Any hospital will need to take any patient that they can medically treat, irrespective of insurance and payments. All hospitals should be increasing capacity to treat critical cases.

Edit: just seen that the USA now has suffered about 1300 deaths.

It's probably worth pointing out that this isn't just a crisis...it's a crisis with no end in sight. It would be nice if warmer weather in a few months kills off the virus, but it's certainly possible it won't or that it will come roaring back in September.

The other thing to keep in mind is that doctors and nurses are voluntary jobs. It's possible that the government could compel them to see/treat every case...but the government can't compel them to be doctors or nurses. They have family and concerns too...a doctor capable of retiring might be more inclined to do so if suddenly he's scrutinized over any little mistake. A nurse might be inclined to find another job. We don't want to suddenly scare them off by blaming them for every minor error.

It's a crisis...mistakes will be made and unfortunately, people will die. Medical personnel are under far more stress and pressure than the rest of us...with no real incentive for continuing to deal with it. We should be as kind and understanding as we can, and be helpful. Any issues with the medical system were in place long before this crisis happened....and the opportunity to fix them won't really be available until it's over.

Goonie said:

Teen Who Died of Covid-19 Was Denied Treatment Because He Didn't Have Health Insurance

So urgent care, if you have money.

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Nothing will be done, which is why it happened. This is part of a test to see how dehumanized we are. Clearly those who exploit us would say we are successfully dehumanized which is why we behave as we do. But, this is for us to see why we are where we are, and what comes next.

The only way I would be surprised is if humans held the right people accountable instead of simply reacting as told.

The original article quoted seems fair, if it's true. If the urgent care facility sent him to the hospital because they didn't have insurance, then it's reasonable to use that in the story.

On the other hand, if he was minutes from dying, it's unlikely that the urgent care center could have done anything. That's not their skill set. But we don't know the details. If it looked like a serious case of the flu, an urgent care center is not an unreasonable place to go, even if in the end it turned out that they probably couldn't have saved him.

What if they had called an ambulance? Could the EMTs that usually come with it have gotten him to a hospital alive? Could the hospital have saved him? We don't know.

It's a national disgrace that we don't provide medical care to everyone, but probably the denial of care didn't actually kill him, because they couldn't have saved him anyway.

Goonie said:

Teen Who Died of Covid-19 Was Denied Treatment Because He Didn't Have Health Insurance

So urgent care, if you have money.

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...and live in the US.

Ana the Ist said:

It's not a hospital....it's an urgent care clinic.

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I did not assert that it was a hospital.

You're not suggesting that every doctor has to treat whomever stumbles through their doors...are you?

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Given the way the American healthcare system is set up, I suppose I can't expect it, but yes I can suggest it.

essentialsaltes said:

I did not assert that it was a hospital.

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Your post suggested you didn't understand the difference

Given the way the American healthcare system is set up, I suppose I can't expect it, but yes I can suggest it.

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Does that seem like a reasonable suggestion?

It seems silly to explain this....but I could suggest a restaurant feed anyone who comes in and is hungry...they just won't remain open for long. After all, why pay for food if they have to feed you regardless of your ability to pay? It's basically the same principle here.

Ana the Ist said:

Your post suggested you didn't understand the difference




Does that seem like a reasonable suggestion?

It seems silly to explain this....but I could suggest a restaurant feed anyone who comes in and is hungry...they just won't remain open for long. After all, why pay for food if they have to feed you regardless of your ability to pay? It's basically the same principle here.

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why not thats how it works in Canada and most civilized countries.

Ana the Ist said:

Does that seem like a reasonable suggestion?

It seems silly to explain this....but I could suggest a restaurant feed anyone who comes in and is hungry...

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If we substitute starving (and poor) for hungry, then I know we have SNAP to allow people such as these to obtain food, and for the retailers of such food to receive adequate compensation.

It does not seem unreasonable to suggest such a plan for healthcare.

essentialsaltes said:

If we substitute starving (and poor) for hungry, then I know we have SNAP to allow people such as these to obtain food, and for the retailers of such food to receive adequate compensation.

It does not seem unreasonable to suggest such a plan for healthcare.

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In different times? Sure...

However, in the middle of a healthcare crisis? Probably best to not tinker with the system that so many are dependent upon for life saving care. It's unfortunate, but as Obamacare showed, even a small misstep can have massive repercussions that affect millions.

loveofourlord said:

why not thats how it works in Canada and most civilized countries.

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That's not how it works in Canada.