Posted on 06/04/2007 3:14:27 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Studies have shown that white children are hospitalized more often for medical emergencies than Hispanic or black children. Researchers from George Washington University School of Medicine assumed that the disparity was because the children of color were receiving less aggressive care. But in a new study, researchers found instead that all children were admitted equally when they had true emergencies, and the white children were over-admitted for conditions that could be readily treated at home. Using data available on 8,952 children at 13 pediatric emergency rooms across the country researchers compared observed and expected admission rates for different levels of illness severity, and found that blacks , Hispanics, and whites were equally likely to be admitted if they were severely ill. However, in case of less severe illnesses such as gastroenteritis or pneumonia, which can be easily treated at home, they found that white children were 1.6 times more likely to be admitted than black or Hispanic children. Although the study was not designed to figure out why these disparities exist, lead author Dr. James Chamberlain, also of Children's National Medical Center, speculates that there may be subtle pressures from both families and hospital administrators to admit certain patients, even if it is not medically necessary.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
And so the push for Socialized Medicine in the US begins....(yet again)
Wow, look at all the posts that came up with the same answer almost immediately. I figure we were all reading and typing in our replies at the same time. Not very hard to understand. But watch it get lots of play by the race card crowd.
Absolutely!
Unnecessary by whose standards? We can’t be second guessing the ER docs. We don’t see what they see. A simple pneumonia may not be so classic in person. It may also be from lack of insurance. I have had docs want to admit before but the parents hold off because of money and education was done on what to do and bring them back if things got worse. If this was a follow the money, I would think medicaid would be a high one-two day admission. Free money :’( JMO
They don’t care - it makes a great headline about how bad American health care in particular and Americans in general are. Half the folks only scan headlines, so the message is delivered.
Researchers . . . assumed that the disparity was because the children of color were receiving less aggressive care. But in a new study, researchers found . . . the white children were over-admitted for conditions that could be readily treated at home.
They assumed "x" was true, but the new study revealed the "X" was true. Huh? Admitting kids for conditions that could be readily treated at home sure sounds like more "aggressive" care to me.
White kids are statistically from a higher economic class than black kids. The higher economic classes are more inclined to coddle their kids. What else is new? They are also more likely to buy their kids bike helmets and insist the kids wear them, more likely to monitor and reestrict their kids diets towards healthier foods, more likely to obsess over what colleges their kids get into, and on and on. It's habit forming. By the time the black and white kids show up at the emergency room, even if they have the same insurance coverage, the white (and other higher economic class) parents are far more likely to insist on unnecessary precautions like hospital admission, than the black (and other lower economic class) parents.
Another economic factor is a bit more concrete. The higher economic classes are better able to work around disruptions to their schedules and usual transportation. Less likely to lose pay from work if they take a couple of hours off to visit the kid in the hospital (and with younger kids, more likely to have one parent either not working outside the home or working only part time), less likely to be relying on slow and inconvenient public transportation to make extra visiting trips to the hospital, etc.
If the hospital doesn’t admit white kids with insurance, they wont have the income to stay open for those that don’t have insurance.
Insurance is probably the name of the game much more so then skin color. Take it from a “white” boy who hasn’t had health insurance for years,ahhhhhhhhh no tickee,no laundry !!!
The Blacks and Latinos would rather spend their money on Lexus and bling and not insurance.
Dope pushers don’t have a group insurance plan.
No doubt populations that eat only rice, potatos and corn may never report a problem with celiac ~ unless, of course, some joker decides to put some delicatessen mustard in the meal (made with malt vinegar) ~ then they'll find out! Wahooo.
Like many other genetic conditions they've already discovered a third variant ~ this one controls "intermittent celiac". There's a paper on this discovery among the Skolt Sa'ami. Since this is a small tribe (in Finland) the Finns find it convenient to compare tests with them to nearby Finnish populations that also engage in reindeer herding full time. That way diet and lifestyle are easily factored out.
Unfortunately all these guys (in Finland) live within the expected blastzone of the atomic submarine waste pit at the old Soviet pens on Kola.
One little boom and they're out of test subjects!
The condition may well be far more widespread in the United states simply because a far larger percentage of our population derive from early Fenno-Scandia populations brought here by the Swedes in the mid 1600s to cut down trees ~ later purchased by the Swedes for their shipping industry and navy through deals negotiated with their quasi-ally, equally Protestant England!
This is an hereditary immunological reaction by T-Cells in the small intestine to gluten, found in wheat, barley and rye. It's pretty obvious that sort of thing can get loose in a population totally independent of wheat culture, e.g. folks chowing down on reindeer and seal.
Last evening in some heavy research I discovered the capital city of Lapp province in Finland is Rovaniemi. There are several different spellings and pronunciations given in other Sa'ami languages. For example, Inari Sami: Ruávinjargâ, Northern Sami: Roavenjárga and Roavvenjárga, Skolt Sami: Ruäˊvnjarg. There seems to be a shallow place in the nearby river ~ a ford perhaps ~ referenced here, and maybe a reference to snow or solid ice (in an area with 168 days of snow cover this is meaningful stuff). You could transliterate the name as "Mule's Crossing", which is the older name of Seymour, Indiana, and there was/is a substantial Sa'ami settlement there with its own separate grave yard at Uniontown Cemetary.
This stuff keeps me awake. Working on "Brogalis" or "Bogallis" at the moment ~ a "reindeer suit" so that when you went out to work the stock you didn't get dirty ~ same as bib overalls in warmer climates. Need some help here guys ~ and for amaroosia (how it sounds), or emi- ruäˊvnjargg, what the riverside country around Seymour has been called for a couple of centuries.
thanks, bfl
This is an agenda by the Boston Globe and other Dem media, to show that anyone that opposes amnesty for a bunch of law breakers must be prejudiced and that the "rumors" that illegals use up vital hospital resources is just a lie perpetrated by the racist white, gringo conservatives.
It doesn't mean anything to them that in areas where illegas are thickest hospitals and ERs have been shut down because of the drain on them. Forget about that, just drink this coolaid and you will support S1348. /SAR
I agree with the general concensus here that this is most likely about which of these kids has insurance coverage, however there may be another angle.
Consider - and I readily admit that I am blatantly stereotyping - your typical white suburban soccer mom. When her Precious Little Darling gets a little tummyache, she just knows its life-threatening, and insists that her little baby get the best treatment available. Even when it turns out that Precious Little Darling just had a spot of indigestion.
Now consider a typical inner-city, low-income minority mom. She knows that money’s tight, and she figures that a doctor probably knows more about the practice of medicine than she does - so when that doctor tells her it’s a common ailment, she decides to trust that doctor and let the kid stay home sick for a few days instead of in the hospital.
Anecdotal experience doesn't make it so.............
You are wiser than you know..........
(snopes status: undetermined)
Studies have also shown that white children’s parents have insurance that will pay the bill.
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