{"id":6127,"date":"2012-06-14T09:18:41","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T13:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6127"},"modified":"2012-06-14T09:26:54","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T13:26:54","slug":"poverty-lack-of-doctor-visits-higher-death-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/06\/14\/poverty-lack-of-doctor-visits-higher-death-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Poverty = lack of doctor visits = higher death rates?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

St. Lawrence County ranks near the bottom in health outcomes.<\/p><\/div>\n

Many people assume that the government helps low income people who really need medical care – people diagnosed with cancer or other potentially life-threatening illnesses. I used to think that, too.<\/p>\n

But then I spoke with Ruth Fishbeck, director of the Health Initiative in Potsdam, for a story about health care needs in the North Country. She told me that a lot of sick people don\u2019t get government assistance \u2013 even when they can\u2019t afford medical care. So they go without doctor visits, lab work, and medications.<\/p>\n

Fishbeck says this is having serious health consequences in St. Lawrence County. It\u2019s ranked among the worst of New York\u2019s 62 Counties by most health measures. Here\u2019s what Fishbeck had to say\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are dying. We rank in health outcomes, we rank 58th or 59th out of 62, and that means premature death and sickness. And a lot of it is simply the lack of money to get adequate health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fishbeck says people who have health insurance just don\u2019t understand how hard it can be to go to the doctor, when it might leave you without money for rent or food.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people are under the impression that there are programs, that the government wouldn\u2019t let somebody with cancer not get treatment because they don\u2019t have money. But that happens every day because there is no program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fishbeck thinks the new national health care law will help more people to afford insurance. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the law in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

What do you think about health care in the North Country? Is lack of money the main issue \u2013 or do you have other concerns? And do you think attempts to make health insurance more affordable will help?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people assume that the government helps low income people who really need medical care […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,4803,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}