This from a recent Johns Hopkins' study:
Using more than 23 million hospital records from 37 states between 1988 and 2005, the Johns Hopkins investigators compared the risk of death in children with insurance and in those without. Other factors being equal, researchers found that uninsured children in the study were 60 percent more likely to die in the hospital than those with insurance. When comparing death rates by underlying disease, the uninsured appeared to have increased risk of dying independent regardless of their medical condition, the study found. The findings only capture deaths during hospitalization and do not reflect deaths after discharge from the hospital, nor do they count children who died without ever being hospitalized, the researchers say, which means the real death toll of non-insurance could be even higher.
"If you are a child without insurance, if you're seriously ill and end up in the hospital, you are 60 percent more likely to die than the sick child in the next room who has insurance," says lead investigator Fizan Abdullah, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Read the full report here.
From my perspective in inner city Dallas, I vote that every single child be covered by adequate health insurance like CHIP.
I believe that there is an underlying problem that is such a hot button that it is seldom discussed. I have no problem at all seeing children receiving proper insurance, but I shake my head when I see a 19 year old unwed mother with three or four children with no means to properly support them. I see this all the time. This is not a figment of my imagination. My wife taught for a number of years in the inner city of Memphis and the youngest mother she knew about was 11. Call me what you want, but this seems to be an issue that cannot be ignored. People can blast me personally, but I would prefer a discussion of the topic.
ReplyDeleteRC
Yes, even poor people are human -- they occasionally make poor choices like the rest of us. But they are human, too. How can we stand by and watch children suffer and die because we want to blame their parents' mistakes?
ReplyDeleteSorry kids. Your lives are not as important as the tax withholding on my paycheck.
Daniel you are totally missing my point. I believe that children are innocent victims in all of this, but isn't there a way to address the issue of unwed teen pregnancies? You read stuff into people's posts that were never intended. You were born into a home where your parents were prepared to care for children. To me it makes no sense to ignore the issue. Something has happened in our society that has allowed children to have children and it makes no sense to ignore it.
ReplyDeleteRC
Then maybe we as a society should be providing a support system for parents to help them address these issues.
ReplyDeleteAnd sex education in the schools beyond abstinence.
ReplyDeleteThis thread, possibly more than any other that has ever appeared here, represents our nearly complete lack of understanding for the total, holistic plight/circumstance of the poor.
ReplyDeleteAnyone with very poor friends understands the psychic reality of those who try to live with literally no options, very little context for joy, and a basic brokenness of life, all caused mostly by devastating, systemic, crushing, generational poverty, and not just bad choices. It is just not that simple.
I remember a conversation I had with a 15-yr-old girl at our inner city church years ago. She was pregnant and said to me, "Now, Mr. Larry, I'm going to have someone to love me and someone to love back."
The poverty of the ghetto in 20-21st Century America is like nothing before. Media bombards everyone with expectaitons and the poor wither in their need, yet try to approximate some level of normalacy, even if it involves dealing drugs, using drugs or having babies. This is not an excuse nor a justification. It is an attempt to foster understanding of the context. And Lorlee, you are correct, our fundamentalist approaches to human sexuality are woefully inadequate. Preaching abstinence to the extremely poor, urban teen is not enough--it comes nowhere near being enough. But beating our chests and preaching it seems to make us feel better.
Attacking poverty, creating hope for a real life, assuring decent educaiton and wages, housing and health care. . .these are the ways we will lift a generation out of the pit.
Ironcially, those who least understand become angry over the subject of abortion. But how many "pro-life" advocates remain pro-life after the child arrives? To be pro-life legitimately is to support life from womb to tomb. We kid ourselves by projecting an offended veil of morality into the cruel, grim face of contemporary poverty.
Want to understand? Go talk to a poor, urban teenager long enough for them to trust you. You might be surprised what's to learn. And, most churches haven't a clue.
Larry, my friend, I have talked with and walked with the poorest of the poor in both Memphis and Northern Shelby County. I am sorry I so totally lack your level of understanding. All I was trying to do was raise an issue that is a part of a much larger issue. I wonder also does the government need to take any responsibility for this multi-generational cycle of poverty? The way you attack churches makes me wonder sometimes why any would support your work. If someone disagrees they are branded as just ignorant. That might be the case for the some, but I am not as ignorant as you might think. I need to take a break from this blog. I just raised an issue, and no matter what you or anyone says unless something is done that will stop the ever increasing number of children having children the cycle of poverty will continue.
ReplyDeleteRC
PS -- I don't feel any better for having said it and don't think that it is in anyway the answer but I know that hiding our heads in the sand certainly hasn't worked.
ReplyDeleteI can look right across the street to see the consequences for the 16 year old who got pregnant on her first time cause she didn't know better and was almost suicidal. And she is a second generation out of wedlock. Fortunately there is the 88 year old grandmother who is the stability in the house but when she is gone, I worry for those remaining.
I don't have the answers and I live in the midst of it in a very modest neighborhood, so all I can do is send CDM money every month.
RC, sorry if I offended you. Not my intention. But this stuff is important beyond words and continuing to blame the poor for their problems without taking a look at the impact of the social forces and the lack of resources is simply not fair. You called out the poor pregnant women of your community. I simply responded to remind us that it just ain't that simple. I asked/challenged the church to do more than what I see it doing! By the way, last year the poor gave us 4% of our budget, the church about 1/2 that much. Maybe that is because they don't like us; but I don't think that is the reason.
ReplyDeleteSince 1980 and the Reagan era, we've cut the poor loose in this country in both parties. Poverty hasn't been a real national issue in any election since the death of Dr. King. Neithger Democrat nor Republican candidates have made it an issue. The early 1980s taught us to believe the poor had no one to blame but themselves. I just don't agree and I don't intend to let that kind of thinking slide by on this page. Again, if I offended anyone, my regrets, but I stand by the analysis. BTW--I don't think I know more than others nor that anyone here is ignorant.
Larry, I know I am not the wordsmith you are, and I find a blog format at times a difficult place to communicate. My purpose in raising the issue of teen pregnancy was not to asses blame on the poor. I can only imagine the reasons why a young teenager would get pregnant. To me there is something wrong at a societal level that perpetuates this dead end cycle. I remember a fellow student of mine who lived in the projects. Our school was intergraded by one massive public housing project. This girl was the exception. She seemed to know she was destined for a different and had a focus unlike any other story. She ended up at Notre Dame. People like her are few and far between who seem to be able to do it on their own, but with even her an unwanted pregnancy would have added a burden that I doubt even she could have overcome. It seems I hit a hot button with you that was not intended on my part. I mean no harm, and want everyone to have a better life. I am just curious to know more about root causes of poverty and in this case the relation to teen pregnancies and rates of poverty.
ReplyDeleteRC
We need to immerse ourselves in the "culture of dispair" that breeds hopelessness. The sociology and communal pathology behind my young friend's statement about what her baby meant to her must be taken seriously and unpacked thoroughly. Then, we need to listen to the poor on their terms, in their spaces without any thought of imposing solutions. Once we've done that I think we'll begin to both understand more and we'll do so with great empathy and much less judgment. BTW--the teen pregnancy experience (male and female) could have been that of just about all of us, don't you think?
ReplyDelete