6.7M children have no health insurance

[The Straight Story]

6.7M children have no health insurance

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- More than 6.7 million U.S. children don't have health insurance and nearly 25 percent of insured children lack adequate insurance coverage, researchers say.

Christina Bethell, an associate professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University, says the National Survey of Children's Health 2007 also reveals significant state-to-state differences on a broad range of health issues for children. For example, 23 percent of adolescents in Utah are overweight or obese compared with 44 percent in Mississippi.

Insured children in Minnesota are almost twice as likely as children in Hawaii to have insurance that does not meet their needs, while 82 percent of children in Pennsylvania received needed mental healthcare services, but only 42 percent of children in Texas received the same access to mental healthcare.

"The survey highlights disparities in health and healthcare quality across states and groups of children," Bethell says in a statement. "The state a child lives in, a child's race, income and neighborhood all significantly impact his or her health."

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/01/14/67M-children-have-no-health-insurance/UPI-69061263451696/

What happened with SCHIP? I thought it was going to solve many of these issues? My own daughter won't have coverage at the end of this month, still trying to figure out the whole thing. The poor, who smoke the most, are now paying much higher taxes - and yet there are still that many kids without insurance?

[sandnsea]

1. My grandkids have SCHIP

Of course, we just increased the cigarette tax and passed a health premium tax so we could provide the coverage to children, families and subsidies for working people.

Maybe your state didn't provide as much matched money which is the reason most kids don't have coverage. Or maybe you just need to apply.

[hfojvt]

2. that survey was from 2007

SCHIP was expanded in 2009. Not sure if it will cover all children, even with the expansion, but it covers more than it did.

This statement is kinda confusing, isn't it?

"Insured children in Minnesota are almost twice as likely as children in Hawaii to have insurance that does not meet their needs, while 82 percent of children in Pennsylvania received needed mental healthcare services, but only 42 percent of children in Texas received the same access to mental healthcare."

Who decides what 'meeting their needs' means? When they say 82%, do they mean 82% of all children, or 82% of the children who 'need' mental healthcare?

[midnight]

4. I too would like to know that?

[midnight]

3. k&R. So much going on behind the scenes that those details of kids going without

begins to surface with stories being told by people like you..... I'm concerned that anyone who has issues more complicated than a tonsillectomy is without help....