Kimberly Young, 22, died from swine flu on Wednesday. Sadly, it has been reported that she delayed treatment due to a lack of health insurance. Although there’s no guarantee that earlier treatment would have saved her life, it would be hard to find a more obvious example of the need to fix our broken health insurance system.
Kimberly Young was a previously healthy 2008 graduate of Miami University of Ohio. She was diagnosed with swine flu and pneumonia. However, she was reluctant to seek treatment because she had no insurance. Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate, said:
“That’s the most tragic part about it. If she had insurance, she would have gone to the doctor.”
On Sept. 22, Kimberly Young’s condition suddenly worsened, and her roommate drove her to McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford. She was then flown in critical condition to University Hospital in Cincinnati, where she died.
Ironically, Young is a constituent of John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate minority leader. Last week on Meet the Press, he dismissed the public option as “big government” while defending a watered-down health reform plan.
Boehner, who makes a show of crying in public over Democrat war appropriations, has been a staunch foe of real health reform. Well, here is your rationing. Here is your death panel. Here and now. Administered by the very efficient insurance industry. Okay so long as it’s not the government, right? What, Rep. Boehner, not one tear for Kimberly?
