The health care needs of Oregon children are in the news again this week as the Legislature considers new initiatives to expand health care and Liz Smith Currie (known as the wife and / or mom around this house) is, as usual, in the thick of things.
From The Oregonian this morning:
Children without health insurance sometimes avoid seeking medical care until they face emergencies. Liz Smith Currie, policy director for Oregon's 44 school-based health clinics, has been collecting stories about uninsured students showing up at clinics with advanced illnesses.
An uninsured student, a senior at Sheldon High School in Eugene, said she put off seeing a doctor for two weeks after she became ill with a fever, vomiting and an aching stomach two years ago. When her abdomen started to swell, she visited the school health clinic and learned she had a ruptured appendix.
Some children who rarely see a doctor "only go when they think they literally are dying," said Debbie Johnson, nurse at Sheldon's health clinic.
Liz is actually the public policy director for the Oregon School Based Health Care Network. Her comments about the needs of rural health care where made in response to a new report released this week by Children First for Oregon documenting the health care crisis faced by Oregon’s kids. Click here to read the report.
