It's all about money

Just today I read on my facebook page, a connection someone put on there for this baby in Portland, Oregon who needs a heart transplant and Children's Hospital in Seattle would not care for him without 1.5 million dollars up front. (see KATU.com). The family has health insurance but it does not cover transplants. The baby was born at 36 weeks. As of today, it looks like the baby was transferred to Children's in Pittsburgh.

This is the clip from the article on Seattle Children's reason for not taking this child:

The hospital released the following statement about Laith's case on Tuesday:

"It pains us to be in a position where we cannot provide health care services to all children who need them. We receive requests for financial support from families throughout the world and unfortunately do not have funds to care for every child in need.

We are committed to providing health care to children in the WAMI region (Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) regardless of a family’s ability to pay. Unfortunately we do not have the funding to make the same commitment to children outside our four-state area. Patients who live outside our region are encouraged to work with their insurance company and members of their communities to raise the money needed to be seen at Children’s.

Children’s provided more than $86 million in un- and under-compensated care in FY 07/08 and that number is expected to grow to more than $100 million in FY 2009."

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I'm surprised someone from Children's actually let that statement be released because it comes across as incredibly cold. No we can't save the world but when you stop just because of money... if the baby had been born just over the other side of the Columbia in Vancouver, they would have done it for free... doesn't it just come right down to money for a life?