Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/doctors/)
Across the world, we are all racing to save the most vulnerable in our societies from the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, however, we are leaving some of our children trapped with nowhere to turn, nowhere to run.
The lights are somehow brighter at 2 a.m., fluorescent and imposing, shining directly onto the hard white table in the center of the room. The paramedics wheel in a gurney with a lifeless body, blood-stained clothes and the face of a boy. The words that follow are too familiar, ”16-year-old male, no known past medical, GSW to the abdomen and right lower extremity …” The boy is transferred to the trauma table and the battle for another life begins.
For three days next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine the fate of the health care reform law signed by President Obama two years ago. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act introduced a number of changes to how the health insurance industry operates and would cover more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Immediate changes include allowing adult children to remain on their parents’ insurance until they turn 27 as well as the elimination of yearly and lifetime coverage caps. More changes will be rolled out slowly until 2014, when the full law takes effect. But opponents argue one provision in particular is unconstitutional — the so-called individual mandate that takes effect in 2014 and requires most Americans to purchase health insurance or else face heavy fines.