Advancing Health Insurance Stability and Quality for Kids
Despite significant state and federal efforts to cover kids, including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, 9.2 million Americans under the age of 19 (12.1 percent of all Americans) went without health insurance in 2001, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Such a lack of coverage can have serious clinical and financial consequences for children and their parents, such as children not receiving critical preventative care, including immunizations. At the same time, even children with coverage don’t necessarily receive high quality care. To cite one example, immunization rates for children two or younger in 2000 were below the Childhood Immunization Initiative’s goal of at least 90 percent.