child care - Digital Library Collections

CHILD
HEALTH
hospitalization for asthma almost doubled among
children under age 1. Although the reasons for this
dramatic increase are not completely clear, poverty
plays a role. Poor and minority children suffer from
asthma disproportionately, and a number of studies
have linked poor housing conditions to increased
respiratory illness among poor children
(see page 17).
Uninsured Children:
An Urgent Problem
There is widespread agreement that health insurance
coverage is vital to children's well-being
and future success. Tragically, millions of
children have no coverage whatsoever. The lack of
health insurance for children is not only a grave
problem but a growing one. According to the Census
Bureau's March 1997 Current Population Survey,
the number of children age 18 and under who
are uninsured year-round reached more than 11
million in 1996-a record high. Of the 1.1 million
Americans added to the ranks of the uninsured in
1996, about 800,000-70 percent-were children
(see figure 2.2). The overwhelming majority of uninsured
children came from working families: 92
Uninsured Childrenpercent
had parents with jobs, and 66 percent had
at least one parent working full-time all year long.
However, as more and more employers have raised
employee premiums for family coverage or
dropped coverage altogether, and as more workers
have shifted from full-time employment into contract,
temporary, or part-time work without benefits,
many working parents can no longer afford
health insurance for the whole family. (For a ranking
of the states with the most and the least health
coverage for children, see table 2.2.)
New research confmns the risks children suffer
when they lose health insurance. A July 1997
report from the National Center for Health Statistics
shows that uninsured children are six times as
likely as privately insured children to go without
needed medical care, five times as likely to use the
hospital emergency room as a regular source of
health care, and four times as likely to have necessary
health care delayed. Analysis of the report
shows that one in four uninsured children either
uses the hospital emergency room as a regular
source of health care or has no regular source of
care.
The 1996 annual report for Florida's Healthy
Kids, a program that subsidizes health insurance
Figure 2.2
More than nine in ten
uninsured children have
working parents, and
further cuts in employer
health coverage are
hurting children the most.
Seven of every 10
Americans added to the
Uninsured children and
parental work status
in 1996
The newly uninsured
in 1996 u
ranks of the uninsured in
1996 were children.
"'Data cover children through age 18.
o. Based on the total increase from 1995 to 1996 in the number of uninsured children and adults.
Source: U.S. Deportment of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Morch 1996 and 1997
Current Populotion Surveys. Calculations by Children's Defense Fund.
CHI L D R EN'S D E FEN S E FUN D 25