Policy Implications Related to Health Care

Providing quality, accessible, and affordable health care to children requires an appropriately trained and compensated provider base; comprehensive insurance coverage for all children; parental understanding about what care is needed and how to access it; and effective systems of care, including a "medical home." When children have health insurance, they are more likely to receive preventive care and acute care, miss less school, and their families are at less financial risk from unpaid medical bills. ^{1, 2} Immigrant children, particularly those with undocumented parents or those who are themselves undocumented, are at particular risk of being uninsured and without regular health care. ³

Policy options for improving children's health care include:

• Ensuring that every child has access to family-centered, culturally competent and coordinated care within a "medical home," particularly children with special health care needs ^{4, 5, 6}
• Ensuring that training is provided to general pediatricians on medical home implementation and management of care for children with special health care needs; and ensuring that there is an adequate number of trained pediatric specialty care providers ^{6, 7}
• Maintaining continuous Healthy Families and Healthy Kids insurance coverage for all eligible children, including immigrant children ^{1,2, 3}
• Ensuring that public insurance reimbursement for pediatric visits covers the time required to focus on child/youth development, family-centered care and – for youth – sexual and reproductive health ^{2, 5, 8, 9}
• Expanding access to health education and consultation services for parents/guardians and service providers in the range of programs that serve young children, including child care settings, nutrition programs, and foster care homes ⁵

For more policy ideas and research on this topic see kidsdata.org’s Research & Links section or visit the California HealthCare Foundation, the 100% Campaign, the National Center for Medical Home Implementation, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

1. Alison A. Galbraith, et. al., "Out-of-Pocket Financial Burden for Low-Income Families with Children: Socioeconomic Disparities and Effects of Insurance," Health Services Research (2005), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361224/
2. Why Coverage Is Important, 100% Campaign (2010), http://sites.activatedirect.com/100percentcampaign.org/coverage/?_c=xxd8fb5l61pyn7
3. Samantha Artiga and Karyn Schwartz, Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care for Low-Income Non-Citizen Children (Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, 2007), http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7643.pdf
4. Policy Statement: "The Medical Home," American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, (2002), http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;110/1/184
5. Zero to Three, Ensuring Good Physical Health of Our Infants and Toddlers, (2009), http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/HealthSinglesMar5.pdf?docID=7888
6. National Center for Medical Home Implementation, Educating Medical Students and Resident on Medical Home, (accessed Feb. 22, 1011, American Academy of Pediatrics) http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/training/residency.aspx
7. Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, Children With Special Health Care Needs: A Profile of Key Issues in California, (2010), http://www.lpfch.org/programs/cshcn/research.html
8. Rachel Benson Gold, "Unintended Consequences: How Insurance Processes Inadvertently Abrogate Patient Confidentiality," Guttmacher Policy Review (2009), http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/12/4/gpr120412.html
9. John M. Goldenring and David S. Rosen, "Getting into adolescent heads: An essential update," Contemporary Pediatrics, (2004), http://www.aap.org/pubserv/PSVpreview/pages/Files/HEADSS.pdf