Alex Chilton Didn’t Have Health Insurance, Didn’t Seek Medical Attention

It seems that Alex Chilton’s death offers an illustration of the commonsense point that expanding access to health insurance will save lives:

At least twice in the week before his fatal heart attack, Chilton experienced shortness of breath and chills while cutting grass. But he did not seek medical attention, Kersting said, in part because he had no health insurance.

On the morning of March 17, she went to work. Chilton called her after suffering another episode; she arrived home before the ambulance, and drove him to the hospital. He lost consciousness a block from the emergency room, after urging Kersting to run the red light.

Now who’s to say how much good seeking attention earlier would have done. But it seems like it probably could have done something.