Kids' health can suffer when parents must choose between health care and basic necessities

"The health of children is harmed when families are forced to choose between medical care and basic household necessities such as food, rent and utilities, a new study found," HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report writes. "The study included 6,447 low-income caregivers with children ranging in age from newborn to 3 years. The participants were asked whether they needed to decide between medical care and household expenses, whether they had health insurance, and about their child's health history. Five percent of the caregivers said they had to make trade-offs to pay for medical care. … The study also found that children in families forced to make such trade-offs were at increased risk for poor health, hospitalization, developmental delays and shorter stature, which is a sign of malnutrition." The study was done by Children's Health Watch, part of the Boston Medical Center and Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health (5/2).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.