Journal Article: Assuring Adequate Health Insurance for Children with Special Health Care Needs: Progress from 2001 to 2009-2010
Assuring Adequate Health Insurance for Children with Special Health Care Needs: Progress from 2001 to 2009-2010
By Reem M. Ghandour, Meg Comeau, Carol Tobias, Beth Dworetzky, Rose Hamershock, Lynda Honberg, Marie Y. Mann, and Sara S. Bachman
Academic Pediatrics
April 10, 2015
Meg and Beth are staff at the Catalyst Center, a project of the Health & Disability Working Group, which Sara directs.
Using data from the National Survey for Children with Special Health Care Needs, the authors examined the 10-year trend in progress towards “adequate private and/or public health insurance and financing to pay for the needed services” for children with special health care needs (CSHCN). This financing measure is one of six Maternal and Children Health Bureau (MCHB) core outcomes for CSHCN. Overall, from 2001 to 2009-10, there was a decrease in the number of CSHCN without insurance. Other findings include:
- A decline in the number of CSHCN with private insurance and an increase in the number of CSHCN with public coverage;
- Adequacy of insurance (insurance usually or always covered needed services, out-of-pocket costs that were usually or always reasonable, and child’s insurance usually or always provided access to needed health providers) improved for children with public coverage;
- For children with private coverage, there was no change in covered services or ability to see needed providers; however, an increased number of families reported the out-of-pocket costs were not reasonable;
- Inequities in coverage persist for CSHCN by race/ethnicity, age, functional status, and household income.
