A 24-year-old Cincinnati father died from a tooth infection this week because he couldn't afford his medication, offering a sobering reminder of the importance of oral health and the number of people without access to dental or health care. . . .Kyle Willis' wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. When dentists told him it needed to be pulled, he decided to forgo the procedure, because he was unemployed and had no health insurance. When his face started swelling and his head began to ache, Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medications. Willis couldn't afford both, so he chose the pain medications.The tooth infection spread, causing his brain to swell. He died Tuesday.
The Republican approach to controlling health care costs depends on pushing more of the burden onto the people making the decisions. As you can can see from this example, there are very high human costs. You can sit back self-righteously and complain that Willis was stupid, but he was sick, unemployed, and probably worried near to death about money. His death was a tragedy directly caused by our stupid health care system. Not to mention the social costs, since the death of young parents has gigantic consequences for all of us in terms of how the children will grow up and turn out.
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