Kimberly Young of Oxford, Ohio, died Wednesday morning a few days short of her 23rd birthday. Hospital officials have said she appeared to have the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.
But here’s why Young’s death is news beyond her southwest Ohio community: people who knew her are saying she resisted treatment that could have saved her life — because she didn’t have health insurance.
And adding to the political resonance: Young’s member of Congress is Rep. John Boehner, who as the House Republican leader has led the effort against reform.
Young, a previously healthy 2008 graduate of Miami University of Ohio who lived in Oxford, was diagnosed with swine flu and pneumonia. A few days later, her roommate’s mother told a local news channel, she went to an urgent care center. But as her condition continued to worsen, she was reluctant to go to Oxford’s McCullough-Hyde Hospital to get proper treatment.
According to the mother, that was because Young “did not have insurance … After she graduated, she was working a bunch of jobs, but none of them had insurance.”
Eventually, after showing signs of kidney failure and dehydration, Young was rushed to McCullough-Hyde, then transferred to University Hospital in Corryville, where she died.
One of Young’s jobs was at Oxford’s Bagel and Deli Shop. A manager there declined to answer TPMmuckraker’s questions about whether health insurance was provided to employees.
It’s by no means confirmed that Young’s death was caused by a lack of insurance. Even assuming the accuracy of what her roommate’s mother said — that she resisted treatment because of the lack of insurance — there’s no way to be sure that timelier care could have saved her. (The mother did not give her last name to the news channel, making it difficult for TPMmuckraker to contact her ourselves. And Young’s parents’ phone number is not publicly listed.)
Still, if Young’s lack of insurance did contribute to her not seeking treatment sooner, it would be hard to find a starker or more compelling example of the need to fix our broken health insurance system. And the fact that she was a constituent of the man who’s leading House Republicans’ in their effort to block reform only underlines the point.
