The Article in Brief

Children’s Receipt of Health Care Services and Family Health Insurance Patterns

Jennifer E. DeVoe , and colleagues

Background Research has shown that children with health insurance have better access to care than uninsured children; however, less is known about how parents' insurance coverage affects their children’s care. This study examined relationships between different family insurance patterns and children’s access to health care and preventive medical services.

What This Study Found When parents lack health insurance, their insured children are more likely to go without necessary medical and preventive services. Among 43,509 US children 2 to 17 years old, insured children with uninsured parents had higher odds of an insurance coverage gap, no usual source of care, unmet health care needs, and not receiving at least one preventive counseling service compared with insured children with insured parents.

Implications

• Based on the study findings, if the current trend continues, the majority of US children will soon live in families with discordant and disrupted patterns of family health insurance.
• The authors call for policy makers to look beyond child-only insurance models. They describe an urgent need to replace the current patchwork of public insurance and private insurance with a new comprehensive model that provides a basic level of stable coverage to all families and everyone in the family.