A report released Aug. 14 on children’s health shows that having health insurance makes an enormous difference in whether kids receive the care they need, especially if they are chronically ill. The study, released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota, shows that uninsured children are three times more likely not to visit a physician’s office in the course of a year than are insured children. Insured kids are also far more likely to have had a regular check-up.
Among the findings, kids with insurance are more likely to receive routine care. Thirty-one percent of all uninsured kids in America did not visit a physician’s office last year, compared with just nine percent of children with insurance. Three out of four insured kids (77 percent) received a “well child” check-up in the past year, compared with less than half of those without insurance (45 percent).
A Needed Lifeline: Chronically Ill Children and Public Health Insurance Coverage was released by RWJF to kick off its annual Cover the Uninsured Back-to-School Campaign, a nationwide effort to enroll eligible children in public health coverage programs during the back-to-school season. Download the report.
