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



## Robert59 (Mar 28, 2020)

A 17-year-old boy in Los Angeles County who became the first teen believed to have died from complications with covid-19 in the U.S. was denied treatment at an urgent care clinic because he didn’t have health insurance, according to R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, California. Roughly 27.5 million Americans—8.5 percent of the population—don’t have health insurance based on the latest government figures. 

https://gizmodo.com/teen-who-died-of-covid-19-was-denied-treatment-because-1842520539


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## WhatInThe (Mar 28, 2020)

17 year old and he wasn't on some kind of public plan as a minor? Wasn't coverd under a family plan for his parents or gaurdia ? Something else going here I think.


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## Buckeye (Mar 28, 2020)

He needed to go to the ER of almost any hospital and he would have received care.  I can't imagine that any urgent care clinic would have what is needed to treat covid 19, and he was properly referred to a local hospital, but by then it was too late.  My condolences to the young man's family.


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## CarolfromTX (Mar 28, 2020)

I don't believe it. No one in this country is denied medical care.


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## Keesha (Mar 28, 2020)

Maybe it’s fake news. 
; if it’s true, a tragedy.


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## OneEyedDiva (Mar 28, 2020)

CarolfromTX said:


> I don't believe it. No one in this country is denied medical care.


I've read some of your replies and it makes me think you live in some kind of fantasy world bubble! Unless your reply here is meant to be facetious *or *you feel you must challenge every statement. People in this country are indeed denied health care based upon whether or not they have insurance. It's a fact your disbelief (if real) cannot alter or delete. Here's another article about it from a San Francisco news site.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...coronavirus-California-Lancaster-15161761.php


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## OneEyedDiva (Mar 28, 2020)

That this happened is such a tragedy! My heart goes out to his family and friends. May he R.I.P.


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## Butterfly (Mar 29, 2020)

OneEyedDiva said:


> I've read some of your replies and it makes me think you live in some kind of fantasy world bubble! Unless your reply here is meant to be facetious *or *you feel you must challenge every statement. People in this country are indeed denied health care based upon whether or not they have insurance. It's a fact your disbelief (if real) cannot alter or delete. Here's another article about it from a San Francisco news site.
> https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...coronavirus-California-Lancaster-15161761.php



You are right, as usual.


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## toffee (Mar 29, 2020)

thank god for our NHS....sad to hear that !


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## garyt1957 (Mar 29, 2020)

OneEyedDiva said:


> I've read some of your replies and it makes me think you live in some kind of fantasy world bubble! Unless your reply here is meant to be facetious *or *you feel you must challenge every statement. People in this country are indeed denied health care based upon whether or not they have insurance. It's a fact your disbelief (if real) cannot alter or delete. Here's another article about it from a San Francisco news site.
> https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...coronavirus-California-Lancaster-15161761.php



  I agree with others, where was the family? He was sick for 5 days before this incident. I understand there are people out there without insurance, but had he gone straight to the ER he would've been cared for. As someone said, an urgent care couldn't do anything for him. And again, had an adult been involved you would think they'd have the common sense to know that urgent cares are for pay and not free. From the sound of his case it's unlikely even going to the ER first would have saved him. It's certainly tragic, but I don't see it as a failure of the medical system. If he couldn't afford ObamaCare, why was he not on Medicaid?


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## OneEyedDiva (Mar 29, 2020)

garyt1957 said:


> I agree with others, where was the family? He was sick for 5 days before this incident. I understand there are people out there without insurance, but had he gone straight to the ER he would've been cared for. As someone said, an urgent care couldn't do anything for him. And again, had an adult been involved you would think they'd have the common sense to know that urgent cares are for pay and not free. From the sound of his case it's unlikely even going to the ER first would have saved him. It's certainly tragic, but I don't see it as a failure of the medical system. If he couldn't afford ObamaCare, why was he not on Medicaid?


Do you know how Medicaid works? I have an online friend who was about $2 from being able to qualify, yet she didn't get enough income to live without help from her son. ERs have been sending people home who've turned out to have the virus but their symptoms weren't clearly pointing to COVID-19.  I've seen where some people have had very mild symptoms the first day or first few days then *suddenly* take a turn for the worst. So what happened to this child is not necessarily his parents' fault either. We don't know the details of the sequence of events.


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## Butterfly (Mar 29, 2020)

OneEyedDiva said:


> Do you know how Medicaid works? I have an online friend who was about $2 from being able to qualify, yet she didn't get enough income to live without help from her son. ERs have been sending people home who've turned out to have the virus but their symptoms weren't clearly pointing to COVID-19.  I've seen where some people have had very mild symptoms the first day or first few days then *suddenly* take a turn for the worst. So what happened to this child is not necessarily his parents' fault either. We don't know the details of the sequence of events.



Yes.  Medicaid isn't automatic, and many people do not qualify for it for one reason or another.  Some people think that if you don't have private insurance you get Medicaid.  That is simply not true.  Private insurance is very expensive (even with Obamacare) and folks have to choose between food on the table and medical insurance.   Medical insurance doesn't always come with employment, either, especially for folks in lower paying or part time jobs, or who are working for medium or small businesses.  And even if you get it with your job, once your job ends so does your insurance.

Regardless what some folks continue to believe, there is a huge number of people in America who have no medical coverage at all -- estimates run from 27 million to 44 million.  Many of these are in states that declined to expand their Medicaid coverage.  

This is an enormous issue in this country and it is one that we seriously need to address one way or another.


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## Pepper (Mar 29, 2020)

OneEyedDiva said:


> Do you know how Medicaid works?


Medicaid is managed by the individual state, not the feds like with Medicare.


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## RadishRose (Mar 29, 2020)

He went to an urgent care HMO office. These are Dr. offices contracted with insurance companies who give minor care.  They could not care for him there anyway and he was sent to a hospital.

No hospitals here deny emergency medical care.


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## Butterfly (Mar 30, 2020)

RadishRose said:


> He went to an urgent care HMO office. These are Dr. offices contracted with insurance companies who give minor care.  They could not care for him there anyway and he was sent to a hospital.
> 
> No hospitals here deny emergency medical care.



Yes.  You can't say the urgent care "denied" medical care to him if they are not equipped or able to treat the kind of thing he presented with, any more than you could say an obstetrician "denied" you medical care if you asked him to fix your broken leg.


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## Rosemarie (Mar 30, 2020)

Our attitude here in Britain is one of compassion. Even the illegal immigrants who find their way here in the backs of lorries are given medical treatment.


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## StarSong (Mar 30, 2020)

Butterfly said:


> Yes.  You can't say the urgent care "denied" medical care to him if they are not equipped or able to treat the kind of thing he presented with, any more than you could say an obstetrician "denied" you medical care if you asked him to fix your broken leg.


They advised him to go to a hospital ER, which is exactly what they should have done.  ERs throughout the US must (and do) treat people regardless of insurance or ability to pay.


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