All Children Need Health Coverage

5-8-97

More than 10 million American children lack health insurance coverage -- one in every seven according to the Census Bureau. Almost 90 percent of these children are from working families. Most of these families have incomes that are too high to qualify for Medicaid, but that are well below the income it takes to purchase health insurance.

Fewer and fewer children have access to employer-sponsored health plans. Since 1989, the number of children without private coverage has grown by an average of 1.2 million a year -- or nearly 3,300 a day. If these trends continue, 13 million children will be uninsured in the year 2000.

Children without health insurance are at risk:

• They do not receive periodic physical examinations. Such exams can identify and correct conditions before they cause a lifetime of pain and disability.
• They suffer from unnecessary illness, disability, and death. About 900,000 suffer every month from acute ear infections, 600,000 suffer from asthma, and many others suffer from untreated strep infections that could lead to serious heart or kidney problems.
• Their education suffers. Untreated disorders affect their ability to learn or cause chronic absenteeism.

The President and congressional leaders proposed a budget for next year that is expected to provide health insurance to half of the 10 million children currently without it. Several proposals have also been introduced in Congress to expand children's health coverage. As you hear more about them, ask whether the proposals expand health coverage to uninsured children, and if they provide comprehensive benefits, including preventive care.

Call your senators and representative at 202/224-3121 and urge them to support extending health insurance to all children and uninsured pregnant women.

Women's Network for Change. All children need health coverage. *Get the Facts.* May 8, 1997.