My daughter could have died. I blame US insurance companies | Melody Schreiber

I asked my doctor for a shot to protect my premature daughter against RSV. Then we realized we didn’t qualify for insurance

Since Thursday morning, United Healthcare hasn’t left my thoughts – but not for the reason you might think.

On Thursday, my pediatrician told me to take my 18-month-old daughter to the emergency room immediately. My baby needed breathing treatments she could only get at the hospital.

But after hours in emergency, she wasn’t getting better. The only question was whether to admit her to the pediatric ward or to transfer her to a hospital with a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). My husband and I asked to stay here, close to home and to our older son, and after four days, she finally seems to be leaving the danger zone of a PICU transfer. But she’s still on oxygen and still receiving albuterol every two hours. We don’t know when she’ll come home and how many months it will take for her to recover fully; already tiny for her age, she’s lost weight, and we see her ribs with each breath.

Here’s the worst part: this was preventable.

My daughter’s respiratory panel came back positive for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), a respiratory infection that can be deadly in children under two, especially among preemies like my baby.