As the Connecticut General Assembly considers Senate Bill #956 entitled: An Act Providing Medical Assistance To Certain Individuals Regardless Of Immigration Status, I want to share a story about how the lack of health insurance for children, can lead to great harm and negative health outcomes.
As pediatricians, we care for all children regardless of immigration status.
My story begins when I was working on the general pediatric floor when a young boy was transferred from the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Children admitted to the PICU are the sickest patients. But the good news was that this boy was on the mend. After receiving a few more days of treatment, he would be able to be discharged home to complete treatment.
However, I would soon learn that this patient would not be able to return home. In fact, he would spend the next three months living in the hospital. The reason for this extended stay? Lack of health insurance.
Lack of health insurance made it impossible to discharge this patient home because he could not receive lifesaving medical treatment. Insurance would have allowed this patient to return home and attend school, his parents would have been able to return to work, and his family would have been able to live together. Countless classes were missed, hours of wages were lost, and the patient spent many days separated from his family.
As the pediatrician I felt helpless. Every day we work hard to heal children so that they can return home where they learn, grow and thrive. The lack of health insurance made this impossible.
A child living in a hospital is costly, and it is not just due to the cost of medical care. The cost on this patient’s and his family’s wellbeing was great. The whole family experienced great social and emotional harm.
When we do consider the financial cost, it is staggering. In 2019, the Annual Report On The Financial Status Of Connecticut’s Short Term Acute Care Hospitals For Fiscal Year 2019 found that Yale New Haven Hospital had greater than $50,000,000 in costs and greater than $200,000,000 in charges from uncompensated care.
Due to lack of health insurance, children, often the most vulnerable amongst us, experience poorer health outcomes and greater social and emotional harm. Research shows that uninsured children receive suboptimal care, have less access to primary care, and have greater costs. Further, children who have health insurance grow up to be healthier adults with lower rates of obesity, high blood pressure, hospitalizations, chronic diseases.
This story is the story for many families. Connecticut has the opportunity to make a life changing intervention for 13,000 uninsured children. The cost is too great to not take action. We must ensure that all children in Connecticut have access to healthcare.