Trauma Deadlier for Kids Without Insurance
TUESDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Uninsured children in the United States are three times more likely to die from trauma injuries than children with private insurance, according to a new study.
Children with public insurance, such as Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program, are about twice as likely to die as those with private insurance, the study found.
"We have this idea that everyone is treated equally, yet the mortality rate after trauma among uninsured children is much higher when compared to children with commercial insurance," Dr. Heather Rosen, a research fellow in plastic surgery at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School and the study's lead researcher, said in a news release from the hospital.
The findings, published in the October issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, stemmed from an analysis of National Trauma Data Bank information on 174,921 trauma patients aged 17 and younger.
The researchers suggested several possible reasons for the disparity they found:
* Trauma patients with no insurance or public insurance might be transferred from one hospital to another, causing a delay in treatment.
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