Matt Novak reports that the first teenager to die in the U.S. from Covid-19 coronavirus infection was uninsured and denied treatment at the urgent care clinic he tried to check into. They told him to go to another hospital; he went into cardiac arrest on the way.
A 17-year-old boy in Los Angeles County who became the first teen believed to have died from complications with covid-19 in the U.S. was denied treatment at an urgent care clinic because he didn’t have health insurance. … “He didn’t have insurance, so they did not treat him,” [R. Rex] Parris said in a video posted to YouTube. The staff at the urgent care facility told the teen to try the emergency room at Antelope Valley (AV) Hospital, a public hospital in the area, according to the mayor.
Parris is the mayor of Lancaster, California. From the transcript of his remarks:
"The Friday before he died he was healthy. He was he was socializing with his friends. By Wednesday he was dead. He had gone to an urgent care for an HMO he didn't have insurance so they did not treat him and sent him to AV (Antelope Valley) hospital. En route to hospital he went into cardiac arrest. When he got to AV hospital they were able to revive him and keep him alive for about six hours but by the time he got there it was too late"
