US unemployment having impact on kids' health-care coverage -- and that puts their heal... ( CINCINNATI -- Two new studies conduc...)

US unemployment having impact on kids' health-care coverage -- and that puts their health at risk

Date:5/3/2008

CINCINNATI -- Two new studies conducted by researchers at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center point to the negative impact of parental job loss on childrens healthcare and the importance of having continuous health insurance coverage to meet childrens healthcare needs and reduce healthcare disparities.

The studies will be presented Saturday May 3 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu.

These studies describe a situation that should be of grave concern to parents, health care providers and policymakers, says Gerry Fairbrother, Ph.D., a researcher in the division of health policy and clinical effectiveness at Cincinnati Childrens who was an author of both studies. The impact of not having insurance coverage in place year-round hurts children in many ways, including not being able to get the prescribed medications they need, and not having a regular source of health care and that puts their health at risk.

The first study shows that children whose parents lose or change jobs were twice as likely to lose their health care coverage as children whose parents did not lose or change jobs. In addition, children with private insurance were more than three times as likely to lose coverage.

This is a particularly disturbing finding, coming at a time when job loss is becoming more common due to the economy, says Dr. Fairbrother, Ph.D., the studys lead author. As unemployment rises, more and more children are likely to experience a break in coverage that affects their health care. Our study showed that most of these children are eligible for public coverage but are not getting the coverage to which they are entitled. Much more needs to be done to reach out to children with private coverage when their parents experience job loss or change.

Dr. Fairbrothers study examined data collected over two years from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a set of large-scale surveys of families and
'/>"/>

Contact: Jim Feuer
Jim.Feuer@cchmc.org
513-636-4656
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Source:Eurekalert

0

GOOD

Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. U.S. Unemployment Having Impact on Kids Health Care Coverage - and That Puts Their Health at Risk
2. Who is Your RD? To Mark First Registered Dietitian Day, American Dietetic Association Urges Everyone to Start Having an Annual Nutrition Checkup
3. Leading National Patient Advocacy Group Delivers Warning to U.S. Patients: Having Health Insurance Does NOT Mean Your Medical Needs Will Be Covered
4. Teens find the benefits of not having sex decline with age
5. Having Boys as Friends Can Boost Young Girls Drinking Risk
6. Having Twin Sister Boosts Mens Anorexia Risk
7. Nine Questions to Help You Protect Your Heart Before Having Surgery
8. Having Lots of Kids Helps Dads Live to 100
9. Overweight mothers run greater risk of having hyperactive children
10. New Survey Finds that over Half of MRSA Patients Report Having Received No Information about the Disease from Health Care Providers
11. More reports of children having trouble falling asleep than maintaining sleep

Post Your Comments:

US unemployment having impact on kids' health-care coverage -- and that puts their heal...( CINCINNATI -- Two new studies conduc...),Health