NYT: Health Coverage of Young Widens With States' Aid

Health Coverage of Young Widens With States' Aid
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: December 4, 2005


LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 - The number of American children without health care coverage has been slowly but steadily declining over the past several years even as health care costs continue to rise and fewer employers provide insurance, creating a breach that states have stepped in to fill with new programs and fresh money.

The overall ranks of the uninsured continue to swell, to nearly 46 million Americans at the beginning of this year. But a landmark federal program begun in 1997 to provide health coverage to poor and working-class children and additional measures taken by states have provided health insurance to millions of children who might otherwise go without.

In the past year, 20 states have taken steps to increase access to health coverage for children and their parents and nine states have reversed actions they took during the 2001-03 economic downturn to limit benefits, according the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, part of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks health care trends. Among them are Illinois, which just signed a child health bill, and Vermont, with its "Dr. Dynasaur" health program, both of which broadened coverage for children.

As a result of these and other steps, there are 350,000 fewer uninsured children in the United States than there were in 2000, the foundation reported. Over the same period the overall number of uninsured rose by six million.

While elected officials cannot agree on how to provide or pay for health coverage for uninsured adults, there seems to be a consensus in many states that covering children is medically wise and politically smart....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/national/04states.html?ei=5094&en=ab007bf1da7a057f&hp=&ex=1133672400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1133655479-aZFsZfvmsAogGX1TTdtNyQ

Bingo..

As noble as it sounds and seems, children as a demographic group are very healthy although there are obviously very extreme, heartbreaking exceptions.

It's a politically easy solution in that respect. Let's tackle the real problem.

to the point of being seriously dishonest.

Just because more kids are theoretically eligible, doesn't mean they're getting coverage- much less care.

Pretty much any undergraduate public health student could rip the assertions in this article to shreds.