Growing body of evidence supports the value of child health insurance

Congress was unable to pass legislation renewing and expanding the federal State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) last year, so it was extended long enough for the new administration and Congress to take on the issue.

Pediatric leaders are hoping that the 111th Congress and the new White House can work together to put children's health issues -- particularly children's health insurance -- on the national agenda.

Peter Szilagyi, M.D., M.P.H., editor of Academic Pediatrics, immediate past president of the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) and Chief of General Pediatrics and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, published a commentary along with other APA leaders that reviews more than a decade of research on SCHIP and child health insurance in this month's Academic Pediatrics.

About 12 percent of children nationwide don't have health insurance, adding up to about 11 million children. Research shows that a lack of health insurance for children is associated with delays in receiving needed health care, a lack of preventive, acute or chronic care, a lower quality of care and, in many cases, poor health outcomes. Studies have also shown that health care for children costs about 1/10th as much as healthcare for adults.