For want of $80, a life is lost
For lack of a shoe, the horse is lost…
Abcessed teeth can kill you — the infection can spread until it ultimately infects the brain, which is exactly what happened to Diamonte Driver, a 12-year old child whose mother had no insurance and couldn’t find a dentist to treat her son.
It’s outrageous that such a thing can happen in this country, but thinking beyond the outrage for a minute, this is a shining example of WHY some form of healthcare is so essential to the economic health of our country. Consider what the expense of NOT covering an infected tooth cost: More than $250,000 for two surgeries and over six weeks of hospital care, all administered much, much too late.
Over the next month, I’ll be writing in depth about healthcare, healthcare policy as it stands today and as it’s been proposed for the future. I have no answers, just lots of questions, but if we don’t really start considering the details rationally and without partisan bias, there will be more Deamonte Driver tragedies that are so preventable, yet still happening.
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