How many US Children die every year because their parents cannot afford health care?

Answer 1

Irresponsible Parents!

Answer 2

Good question since nobody is actually keeping statistics on it. It's almost an impossible question to answer since those without insurance are for the most part "flying under the radar". I do know of several cases where people died for having the "wrong" insurance.

Example: My best friends father was in a car accident late at night. The city ambulance crew took him to the nearest hospital. The first thing the hospital did was check what kind of insurance he had. Since it was Kaiser and he was not at a Kaiser hospital the hospital did NOTHING except call Kaiser and tell them they had one of "their" patients there. Why? Because Kaiser insurance will not pay for anything done outside of their facilities. Since the non-Kaiser hospital didn't even evaluate my friends dad Kaiser took about three hours to come and pick him up and transfer him to a Kaiser hospital. By that time he had gone into a coma from internal bleeding which he never recovered from. OH BUT Kaiser did get to charge up a month of "intensive" care since they kept him on life support for a month until he mercifully died.

I have heard the exact same Kaiser story many times. It's not limited to Kaiser. What is the first question ALL hospitals (even our local "Sisters of Providence") ask? "Do you have insurance"?...Not "what seems to be ailing you"?

So I'm sure that the children that die from lack of insurance never even enter the system to become a statistic to be counted.

Answer 3

It would be impossible to know because many cases are not reported as due to affordability issues, and no one is keeping track of these statistics overall. But someone is keeping track of some of the most tragic cases:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/18/1285/

All these people who smugly say that no sick child goes untreated have obviously had no contact or experience with the health care available for the poor in this country. The recent case where a woman died on the floor in a Los Angeles emergency room is a good example.

Answer 4

Too many no doubt.
Country Infant mortality rate
(deaths/1,000 live births)
180 United States 6.37
182 Cuba 6.04
197 European Union 4.80
You would think this was shocking to all those self proclaimed pro lifers but I guess the only thing they really consider shocking would be a tax increase.
Life expectancy at birth
(years)
3 Japan 82.02
10 France 80.59
28 Netherlands 79.11
45 United States 78.00
The World Health Organization's ranking
of the world's health systems.
Rank Country

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
Yeah,I say way too many in the richest country in the world.

Answer 5

Not many. Those that do do so because the parents allow it. For true catastrophic cases hospitals and physicians can not turn patients away. Also, if a parent can not afford health care there are services provided to assist them. So if children are dying for lack of health care it is the parents fault for not checking into every opportunity not the governments.

Answer 6

tens of thousands probably. The health care in the US is ridiculously expensive. And the service they offer is not even extraordinary. I went to an emergency care one night because my friend broke his finger. They checked him out 30 minutes later...and patched the finger 3 hours later. Sure it's not a big deal. Just a broken finger right? But heck, I'm sure it hurts so bad...and the blood was still dripping from his finger too. For they price we pay for health care, the service is sadly lacking. In any other countries, and I've been to many, the patients are treated with outmost care...with decent amount of money that we have to pay. It's sad that here, the most powerful country of all, health care is not at it best. And it's even sadder that small babies and children are the hardest hit of all. Yet, we spend billions of dollars in a totaly wasted effort: war.

Answer 7

More than the answerers here realize according to statistics it's 6.8 out of 1000.

Is that an acceptable rate?

Insurance companies can deny treatments they deem unnecessary and terminate benefits at will!!

You only have the best health care that money can buy!!

Answer 8

Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia's rate is 6 per 1,000.
May 2006

Answer 9

7

Answer 10

Not many. I pay high taxes so that countless social programs can exist. No hospital will refuse to treat a sick person. And my state has hundreds of medical social programs paid for by my tax dollars so that good quality medical care is available to anyone that needs it.

A child may die because of their parent's neglect in getting them proper medical care, but NOT because their parents could not afford all the free health care that is out there.

Answer 11

WOW, the depth of ignorance of these posts is astounding.

I don't have figures, but the infant mortality rate in this country is appalling.

Hospitals have to treat patients regardless of whether they can pay or not. What a joke! People who go to free clinics are subject to substandard medical care and don't get the proper treatment that someone with medical insurance would get. Most of the time they don't even get the same doctor. And, yes, hospitals are turning away people, in a sneaky way so that they aren't caught or sued.