As Congress and the Obama administration work to reform our nation's health care system, here are resources to understand what's happening, what's in it for kids and young people, and what you can do to help. Please note that the citations are not intended to be comprehensive - we link to one or two relevant studies for each. To suggest more resources, email submissions@connectforkids.org.

The basics:

• About 45.7 million people in America are without insurance  (Census data, 2008).

• One in every 10 children in the United States had no health insurance in 2007, and the cost of insurance to families and employers is rising, according to 2009 information cited in a Population Reference Bureau brief.

The context - what do we get for our money?

As a nation we pay more for health care but have worse outcomes than any other industrialized country, according to 2009 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) health data.

• Our infant mortality rate was 6.9 per 1,000 live births in 2008, compared to a 5.2 average among OECD countries (OECD brief).

• U.S. health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense (National Health Care Coalition factsheet)   

• When people postpone or forego early care, costs rise for them and for the rest of us. According to Families USA, the average family with health insurance paid a “hidden health tax” of $1,017 to cover health costs of the uninsured. Health insurers absorbed $42.7 billion in care for uninsured individuals in 2008 (see: Wall Street Journal coverage).

• Poor health care and poor health burden working families, limiting productivity and impairing families’ ability to care for themselves and their kids (Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured).

• Parents struggling with undiagnosed and/or untreated illnesses or medical conditions cannot work as hard, earn as much, or care for their kids as well as when they are healthy (National Center for Children in Poverty).

Why do we need a public option in health care reform?

• Because public options, like Medicaid and Medicare, have worked well for their target populations (see videos of a RAND forum on their effectiveness). Medicaid beneficiaries access health care at levels comparable to the privately insured (Urban Institute).

• Because health care T.R. Reid's research; another interesting read, this Washington Times article). A public option would allow for a different incentive system to reward good outcomes and control costs through more effective care.

• Because we need a quality safety net for workers who do not get health care through their jobs, those who can never afford private insurance rates, for workers out of a job, and for the chronically ill who cannot work full-time.

• Because we need a public option to set the standard for policies and procedures that put the patient first, not profits. (According to CHN's July 1 Human Needs Report, a bill in the House of Representatives would "do away with exclusions of pre-existing conditions and would limit the ability of insurance companies to charge higher rates due to health status, gender, or other factors.")

What does the public think of health care reform?

• The public wants to see some kind of health care reform happen this year, but doesn’t want to lose control over their choice of insurance or of their doctor. They need to hear that health care reform will not take away their plan or their doctor, if they like what they have. Health care reform will bring peace of mind to those who worry they cannot find affordable care when they need it. (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/06/opinion062909.html)

• In 2009 poll for The Economist, 68 percent of Americans “rate the care they receive as ‘excellent’ or ‘good,’ but 52 percent are dissatisfied with the quality in the country as a whole.”

• The results of the 2009 Health Care for America Survey—sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America—show that more than half of the 23,460 people who took the survey cannot get the health care they need at a price they can afford and one-third say they forgo basic medical care because of its high price. In a nearly unanimous response, survey takers say health care reform is urgent.

• A solid majority of the public believes health care reform is more important than ever because of current economic problems (Kaiser Health Tracking Poll).

How do kids figure in health care reform?

• There are nearly 9 million uninsured children in America (that's one in 10 U.S. children).

• Kids need healthy parents. Parents without health insurance tend to delay care for themselves, and sometimes for their kids, even when their kids are covered (National Center for Children in Poverty).

• Parents struggling with undiagnosed and/or untreated illnesses or medical conditions cannot work as hard, earn as much, or care for their kids as well as when they are healthy. (report from Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured)

• A Kaiser Health Tracking Poll (April 2009) finds that six in ten Americans continue to say that they or a member of their household have delayed or skipped health care in the past year.

Why Families Can’t Wait Too Long for Health Care Reform

• When it comes to reforming the health insurance system, there are costs to going too slowly. Families USA reports that over the past 10 years working families in many states have seen their health care costs go up significantly faster than their earnings, burdening family incomes and pricing more families out of the health care market.