by: Jan Richter, Clare Krusing and the CFK Team
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 [1].
The basics:
- About 45.7 million people in America are without insurance (Census data, 2008 [2]).
- 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 [3].
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 [4]).
- U.S. health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense (National Health Care Coalition factsheet [5])
- 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 [6]” 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 [7]).
- 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 [8]).
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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 [9]).
Why do we need a public option in health care reform?
Public opinion polls and press coverage are evolving faster than we can keep up with, so if we're missing something, let us know [10].
- Because public options, like Medicaid and Medicare, have worked well for their target populations (see videos of a RAND forum [11] on their effectiveness). Medicaid beneficiaries access health care at levels comparable to the privately insured (Urban Institute [12]).
- Because health care [41]
Stand Up for Health Care
This unique Web site provides the tools to empower ordinary Americans to be part of the health reform movement.
Check out www.standupforhealthcare.org [42].
[43]
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/6976
Links:
[1] http://www.connectforkids.org/mailto:submissions@connectforkids.org
[2] http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/012528.html
[3] http://www.prb.org/Articles/2009/usuninsuredchildren.aspx
[4] http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,3343,en_2649_34489_41722336_1_1_1_1,00.html
[5] http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml
[6] http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/hidden-health-tax.html
[7] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124353194170163283.html
[8] http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7662.pdf
[9] http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_874.html
[10] http://www.connectforkids.org/mailto:weekly@connectforkids.org?subject=healthcare
[11] http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF239/#welcome_to_the_schip_policy_forum_and_introduction_to_session_1
[12] http://www.urban.org/publications/1000759.html
[13] http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=103623978.html
[14] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/etc/notebook.html
[15] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/08/keep-close-eye-on-health-care/
[16] http://www.chn.org/humanneeds/090701a.html
[17] http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/06/opinion062909.html
[18] http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/06/this_weeks_economistyougov_pol_4.cfm
[19] http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/06/this_weeks_economistyougov_pol_4.cfm
[20] http://www.2009healthcaresurvey.aflcio.org
[21] http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/fix.cfm
[22] http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/posr042309pkg.cfm
[23] http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_874.html
[24] http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7662.pdf
[25] http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/posr042309pkg.cfm
[26] http://familiesusa.org/resources/newsroom/
[27] http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/07/premiums_run_amok.html
[28] http://www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm
[29] http://www.rwjf.org/healthreform/product.jsp?id=44488
[30] http://opencrs.com/document/R40517
[31] http://speaknowforkids.org/factsheet.php
[32] http://familiesusa.org/
[33] http://www.childrensdefense.org/helping-americas-children/childrens-health/health-coverage-for-all-children-campaign/give-a-voice-to-children-in-health-care-debate.html
[34] http://www.chn.org/issues/health/
[35] http://www.childrenshealthfund.org/
[36] http://www.voices.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=23054
[37] http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=43288
[38] http://www.connectforkids.org/Advocates Press to Have Dental
[39] http://www.urban.org/publications/411899.html
[40] http://casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=75d786f6-949d-4fed-af5d-5ffabcdb6177
[41] http://www.standupforhealthcare.org
[42] http://www.standupforhealthcare.org
[43] http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1NGeZXY2E%2B6kuHV1mxjTQTIzWO0RgNrP