Pediatric Health Care and Insurance in the USA Essay Assignment Paper

Pediatric Health Care and Insurance in the USA Essay Assignment Paper

Pediatric Health Care and Insurance in the USA Essay Assignment Paper

Introduction

According to the UN, children are one of the most vulnerable populations (Burns, Dunn, Brady, Starr, & Blosser, 2013). Despite the efforts of the U.S. government to ensure a thorough health care coverage for all children who are residents of the country, there remains a number of children who are uninsured and have no access to medical care, usually due to the parents’ low income and difficult living conditions (HRSA, 2015). This paper aims to examine the gaps in pediatric care coverage, as well as the reasons for these shortcomings.

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Analysis

HRSA’s (2015) analysis of health care use by pediatric population shows that the primary source of pediatric care is the doctor’s office: “Among children with a usual source of care in 2012, 74.2 percent of children used a doctor’s office; 23.9 percent used a clinic; and 1.9 percent used the hospital and other places, including emergency rooms and hospital outpatient departments” (p. 91). However, the preferred source of care varies considerably by family income, as well as race and ethnicity. For instance, HRSA (2015) states that children with household incomes of less than 200 percent of poverty were about twice as likely to use a clinic as a usual source of care than children with higher household incomes. Insurance coverage provided to children is either public or private, with private insurance usually being provided by the parent’s employer and public insurance supported by Medicaid or state-governed plans (HRSA, 2015). Children’s insurance coverage varies between populations: where the prevalent type of insurance for non-Hispanic white children is private (68.6), non-Hispanic black children are twice more likely to use public insurance (58.8) (HRSA, 2015). The percentage of uninsured children is high in Hispanic and native populations – 11.8 and 11.9 respectively (HRSA, 2015). The overall percentage of uninsured children has been gradually decreasing over the past decade but remains relatively high at 6.6 (HRSA, 2015).

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