Not News and That's a Crime

If only the story Zach Roth of TPM brings us were unique.

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.

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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.

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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.

Look around: somebody you know - the server at your favorite lunch joint, the recent college graduate of whom your neighbors are so proud, the friend who just got laid off - is going to be the next victim of our refusal to make our health care system rational and effective.