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Introduction
Extensive research has documented the positive effects that health insurance has on a child’s physical, developmental, social, and emotional health. Children who have health insurance are more likely to have a relationship with the same doctor over time, receive regular well-child checkups, and have their medical, dental, vision, and other health care needs met. But what happens when an uninsured child is seriously injured or develops a condition that requires hospitalization? Does health insurance make a difference in the child’s treatment and health outcomes? The answer is an emphatic “yes.”
Studies of uninsured adults have shown that, compared to people with insurance coverage, the uninsured receive less health care and have poorer health outcomes across a host of conditions. But there is little research that looks specifically at the effects of health insurance on children’s health outcomes. In recent years, attention has been focused on the barriers that uninsured people face when trying to obtain primary care, as well as the effects that these barriers have on hospital emergency departments, which end up providing non-emergency care. However, this report examines instances when hospital care is undeniably necessary. For common conditions that require hospital-level care, mortality rates, utilization rates for certain medical procedures, and lengths of stay all differ significantly between insured and uninsured children. Uninsured children also have poorer access to follow-up care when leaving the hospital after being treated for severe injuries.
In 2005, for the first time in nearly a decade, the country experienced an increase in the number of uninsured children. The findings in this report add a new sense of urgency to the problem of uninsured children. Other reports have documented that children who lack insurance miss regular checkups and visits to the doctor for less serious conditions. This report takes another step and shows that, even for life-threatening conditions, when hospital care is essential, parents and physicians are forced to make hard decisions about both short-term and long-term treatment—choices that can be a matter of life and death.
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Key Findings
Full report
(pdf version)
Memo from
Ron Pollack
Executive Director
Families USA |
