Uninsured Kids Going Without Care

Federal data show one-third of the roughly 8.4 million U.S. children without insurance go without medical care for an entire year, even though many are eligible for government health programs.

Uninsured children in Southwestern states and in Hispanic and African-American families were most likely to go without medical care, according to a report being released Tuesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Plainsboro, N.J.

The foundation is releasing the report as it starts its sixth annual back-to-school campaign, called "Covering Kids & Families," to get more children enrolled in public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP.

Dr. Richard Carmona, the U.S. Surgeon General, discussed the problem on The Early Show Tuesday with co-anchor Rene Syler.

Carmona has declared 2005 "The Year of the Healthy Child."

According to one of his media representatives, Carmona cares a great deal about this issue because he grew up in a poor family and knows what it's like not to have medical insurance.

Overall, the new report shows, 32.9 percent of uninsured children went without any care — not even treatment in a hospital emergency department — for an entire year during the period of 2002 through 2003. That included 41.4 percent of Hispanic children, 29 percent of African-American children and 25.7 percent of white children.

Even when these uninsured children needed care for an illness or a vaccination for school, 15 percent of African-American children, 6 percent of Hispanic children and 4 percent of white children went without medical help."These are obviously working families. A lot of times both parents work, they may have two jobs, so they think their children are not eligible," Elaine Arkin, manager of the "Covering Kids & Families" campaign, told The Associated Press.

Yet more than seven of every 10 uninsured children would be eligible for free or low-cost health coverage under Medicaid or SCHIP, according to the foundation, which has set up a hotline at 1-877-KIDS-NOW to help parents.

"Many (uninsured) children and their parents are unaware that their is coverage for (the children) through the SCHIP program in every state," Carmona told Syler. "Children who don't have insurancve very often are eligible, but because parents don't know how to access the system, the children go without care."

For a state-by-state breakdown of government health insurance programs available for children, click here.

"Moms and dads are getting their kids ready to go back to school," Carmona continued, "and they've got a checklist. They buy books. They buy clothes. Make sure you put on that checklist, healthcare. Make sure you access the system."

The SCHIP programs vary slightly among the states in services offered and eligibility limits, but in general a family of four with an income up to $38,000 a year should qualify. Programs normally cover checkups, eye and hearing tests, vaccinations and care when sick, including prescriptions and hospitalization.

The two government programs have helped reduce the number of uninsured children by about 2 million since 1998, with the biggest gains among Hispanic and African-American children. However, about 8.45 million of America's 73.45 million children remain uninsured, including 2.9 million uninsured Hispanic kids and 1.6 million uninsured African-American kids. The percentage of uninsured kids fell from 13 percent in 1998 to 10 percent in 2003.The foundation's report, prepared by analysts at the nonpartisan Urban Institute and the University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center, is based on recent surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Census Bureau.

It shows big differences among states in how many uninsured children went without care for a year, ranging from 14.8 percent in Maryland up to 47.1 percent in Arizona.

In New York, which has added several government health programs for the poor and working poor in the last five years, 22 percent of uninsured children went without medical care for a year. Meanwhile, 92 percent of children in the state with health insurance received some health care in the last year.

New York serves 420,000 children under its Child Health Plus program and another 1.8 million children under Medicaid, said state Health Department spokesman Robert Kenny.

More than 20 percent of uninsured kids got no medical care for a year in all but six states — Maryland, Massachusetts (15 percent), Rhode Island (17.4 percent), Pennsylvania (18.5 percent), New Jersey (18.9 percent) and Maine (19.9 percent). States with the highest rate of uninsured kids going without care included Arizona, Nevada (43.4 percent), Oklahoma (41.7 percent), Texas (40.5 percent), New Mexico (40.3 percent) and Georgia (37.8 percent).

"We know from talking to a lot of parents that they're reluctant to take their children in (for care) because they can't pay the bill," Arkin said.

While the foundation could not say whether any children died because of lack of insurance or health care, a 2002 report from the prestigious Institute of Medicine, titled "Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late," estimated that 18,000 Americans die every year because of lack of health care.

On Tuesday, the foundation is kicking off thousands of health fairs and other activities in every state and the District of Columbia to give parents information about how to enroll their children in the government health programs. The foundation also has partnerships with major national corporations and is working with nearly 200 national public health, education, social service and faith-based groups to spread information about the government health programs through product ads, Web sites and mailings.