Can We Spend a Few Million on Kids’ Health?
Families USA has a new study out which shows Ohio has 214,000 children without health coverage - the 11th most of all 50 states. Key findings of the study:
- Nationwide, 8.6 million children are uninsured. That’s one in nine of all our children.
- Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) pick up some of the slack. Between 2006-07, child enrollment in these two programs increased by over 900,000. President George W. Bush vetoed an expansion of SCHIP this year.
- 88% of the uninsured children come from families where at least one parent works.
- 59% of uninsured children come from two-parent households.
I think it’s interesting that Families USA included the final two statistics above in the summary of their report. It says something about the political arguments that occur over funding healthcare or any other assistance for the needy. The facts that most kids without health coverage come from working and two-parent families shows that this is a problem affecting the upper lower and lower middle classes. Personally, I could care less whether or not those kids’ parents work or are married. The salient fact is that kids don’t have control over their economic well-being or their ability to pay for health care. Every child should have affordable access to health insurance on a sliding scale or for free. Period.
We can spend nearly a trillion dollars in Iraq and the talk is that we’ll spend several trillion on getting the economy moving again through more corporate bailouts and economic stimulus programs. I would think that the next Congress and President Obama could find a few million dollars for the health of America’s kids. Expanding SCHIP would be a good start.
- Cincinnati Enquirer story on the study
- Families USA Study: Left Behind - America’s Uninsured Children
