Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/27/first-u-s-teenager-to-die-of.html
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U-S-A! U-S-A!
He won’t be the first teenager to have died thanks to American “free”-market fundamentalism, and if conservatives keep calling the shots during this crisis he’ll be far from the last.
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The teen’s death has been removed from the official U.S. death toll, according to Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, who gave a press conference on March 25.
He has risen!
Look for a sudden epidemic of people dying of all kinds of things except COVID-19.
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Really senseless death and i hope this urgent care facility gets taken to task for what happened, though the problem doesn’t ultimately lie with them but our healthcare/insurance system to begin with. Also there’s a reason i’ve never gone to an urgent care, emergency rooms cannot deny you treatment regardless of your insurance status
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Every country has its updsides and downsides, but fuck me the U.S. is a bit of a cruel shithole.
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Look for a sudden epidemic of people dying of all kinds of things except COVID-19.
Well, ultimately we all die of either traumatic tissue damage and/or lack of oxygen to the brain. 
“Countries with authoritarian leaders like China, Iran, and Russia have adopted a strategy of denying that some people have actually died from covid-19, even after they test positive for the disease.”
One might hope that such pedantry is quickly squashed for fear, at the least, of being tarred with that particular brush.
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There was a 17 year old with COVID-19 that died Sunday in New Orleans.
Like in L.A., La. did not count his death among the COVID death toll because there may have been other factors. While politicians might prefer to keep the numbers down, letting young people know that they might die from COVID might help with idiots on spring break and elsewhere that think they are immune
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If they’ve got time to make excuses of why it wasn’t COVID, then they’ve got time to work on more resources for the hospitals.
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Ok, I’m a bit ignorant of how this works, but… Isn’t there an individual mandate thing in the US, where everyone is required to have coverage, and anyone who doesn’t have it gets assistance if needed to get it? How many uninsured are there in the US at this point? I thought that Obamacare was supposed to make sure that there are no uninsured here? I’m a bit ignorant because I’ve had employer coverage for years so I haven’t needed to look into how all this works.
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If you look at the total deaths for areas like Lombardy, the total spikes much (IIRC 4x) more than the ones officially from COVID-19. Dunno how that breaks down; the epidemiologist in the family is my daughter and she doesn’t need her dad bugging her with this kind of thing now.
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There effectively is no individual mandate anymore. There are a variety of reasons, but essentially conservatives have managed to chip away at Obamacare enough to effectively nullify it.
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Let us all bask in the glow of the free market. How glorious it is!
Now where did I keep my guillotine blade sharpener…
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First world problems?
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I’ve got one that fits in a drill. Or was that for the lawnmower? Eh bein, peu importe.
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The ACA reduced the number of uninsured by about 20 million, but there are still 10% of people under 65 (not eligible for medicare) without insurance. As for them getting assistance, no they actually get fined for not having coverage
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We will only get a realistic estimate of total COVID-19 deaths by comparing the total number of deaths this year to previous years (plus statistical corrections for population increases, etc.). That will include people who die of other causes while the ICUs are full, but you could probably correct for that as well.
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And even when there was, medical insurance was an opt-in situation (with a tax penalty for those who didn’t). A minor whose parents can’t or won’t find them health insurance has very limited options.
Even with health insurance it’s not always easy to find care since different care providers may accept different plans.
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