Kids Don't See Doctors When Parents Are Uninsured

by Tom Henderson (Subscribe to Tom Henderson's posts) Sep 19th 2009 10:55AM

Categories: Medical Conditions, In The News, Weird But True

Does your child see a doctor on a regular basis? Credit: jupiterimages

When parents don't have medical insurance, their children get less medical care -- even if the children themselves are covered.

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland used information from a government survey of 43,000 American households and found that children are a third more likely to not have a regular doctor if they have health insurance but their parents aren't covered.

The team, led by Dr. Jennifer E. DeVoe, also concluded that such children are 20 percent more likely to miss regular checkups and other routine doctor visits designed to keep them healthy, according to a report by Reuters.

Researchers considered other factors, including the parents' income and education. Even taking those factors into account, DeVoe and her group still saw a direct connection to the parents' insurance status.

"The vulnerability of children in this study...highlights the need to look beyond child-only insurance models in the longer term," they wrote collectively in the current issue of Annals of Family Medicine, according to Reuters.

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Comments (17)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SKL 9-19-2009 @ 2:40PM

Ah-ha, so maybe adults make intentional choices about family health care?! Maybe many adults think the recommendations are overkill, even if cost is not an issue. Especially when they have more important things to do, such as show up at work every day.

I went my whole childhood without going to the doctor except for required shots (usually late) and illnesses that required antibiotics (such as strep). Same goes with my whole family and my kids. We all had health insurance. Growing up, the only people I knew who took their kids for "routine" visits were stay-at-home moms whose husbands carried insurance, or welfare moms who got it free and had nothing better to do. Amazingly, the rest of us managed to live to adulthood.

We don't need insurance for routine stuff. We need information and choices (especially the right to buy high-deductible insurance for those who don't want the "whole package.") Unfortunately the government is pushing for the exact opposite - to ban high-deductible insurance and penalize people for making the choice not to waste unnecessary time at a doctor's office. And somehow this is supposed to save money while guaranteeing better health . . . impossible.

LillieFaerie 9-20-2009 @ 11:22AM

In our state, there is no reason not to see a doctor if needed as a child. There is a no child uninsured program that if parents do not have insurance, there is a cheap(free) program for ALL children. I am so sick of the outright lies this moronic aministration is trying to push on the public. Same with the numbers who die due to being uninsured. Considering that every institution that does take federal dollars already must then provide access to their facilities so what may occur is that you will have ruined credit for not paying your bill, or own a ton of money, but you cannot be turned down, or they loose funding. These writers need to research what they write and not expect to pull a fast one on the American public.

Immunizations are offered at the health department as well. Prescriptions are offered for a cut rate at many pharmacies here, if no insurance, it is possible to join their groups-free and get the same $10 copay for a 90 day supply, $3-5 dollar copay for 30 day supply and,....for those who can't afford it, certain pharmacies offer free antibiotics of specific kinds.

LMM 9-27-2009 @ 12:17PM

So, was I being a bad parent or bad employee when I left work early one day to bring my daughter to a "routine" exam and they found the 8cm tumor in her belly?

Clarissa 9-20-2009 @ 11:38AM

We are lucky enough to have insurance through my husbands place of work. We still don't go to the dr. unless it's absolutely necessary.

I haven't been to a health dr since my daughter was born 14 years ago. (I do have yearly eye exams done because I wear glasses and because I have a birth mark on the optic nerve of my left eye that could turn cancerous). My husband goes every six months because he is on blood pressure medication and medication for injuries incurred while in the military. The last time my daughter went was 2 years ago when she broke her wrist.

We don't believe in fixing something if it isn't broken. We don't go for the sniffles or the common cold. We don't go for "checkups". We don't go just to go. We don't burden the system by making useless trips to the dr.

Katty 9-20-2009 @ 8:22PM

My best friend's son had a heart condition in utero, he was an emergency c-section at 34 weeks after they were told that he had a condition "not compatible" with life. He was in the hospital for 8 weeks, surgery at week 3, still needs daily medication and is now in physical and speech therapy twice a week.

To imagine this happening to a family is unbelievable. Insurance is not about the families that nothing happens to, who has healthy kids and healthy families, its about this baby who without insurance, the mother may have not gone in for her routine appointments and the condition may have not been found, its for a 35 year old woman in my mommy group who had breast cancer and now has bone cancer that has spread to her skeleton, its about my husband's good friend who had a stroke at 31 due to a genetic heart condition that noone was aware of and after 4 years of around the clock medical care, died.

What do you tell families who need more than routine medical care and don't have insurance? too bad?

SKL 9-20-2009 @ 10:05PM

I tell them to go buy insurance.

Do the research. The government should stop trying to cover up the fact that there really are affordable choices out there that can and do insure against catastrophic illnesses / accidents.

Routine health maintenance should be handled just like car maintenance. Does your car insurance cover oil changes? Then why must your health insurance cover routine maternity visits? If you can get it as a perk from an employer, great. But if not, pony up, or sign up with a charity or Medicaid if you're destitute. It will cost all of us a lot more if we get socked with a "universal health care" tax.

LS 9-21-2009 @ 12:11AM

"What do you tell families who need more than routine medical care and don't have insurance? too bad?"

I tell them, "It happened to my family, and I dealt with it."

Over a year ago, my husband was between jobs (I was, and still am, a SAHM), and we had no health insurance - by choice, mind you - and he was in a car wreck that landed him in the ICU for over a week, and involved nearly a year of physical therapy, prescriptions, etc. To this day, he remains completely blind.

We had no insurance except for the medical that was covered by our car insurance policy, and that was eaten up by LifeFlight transport to the hospital.

And yet, we are NOT bankrupt. We are NOT drowning in medical debt. We are NOT living on the street. We are NOT begging for money.

Why? Because the minute I could get my brain working, I went to the hospital and said, "I have no insurance. I have this much in my savings. These are my assets. How can I pay you for saving my husband's life?"

They worked with me. They helped me sign up for public medical assistance. They worked with the existing insurance I had (that car policy), AND they worked with me to protect the assets I did have, so my family would NOT end up out on the street.

Everybody likes to listen to, and quote, Mr. Obama, et al, when they tell these dire horror stories of people left penniless and diseased to die in the streets. But when you go looking for them, they simply are not there.

Because there is already a system in place. That system may need refining, and it definitely needs streamlining, but it works. What is being proposed is nothing short of disaster - both financial and medical - for this country.

salome 9-20-2009 @ 10:30PM

thank you ""SKL""--not all of us were ever in a doctors office for a routine check up-- ????---for WHAT ? their pocket money ? and back then your doctor wasn't looking for you either.
Having my first baby was a very rude awakeing that they expected us in routinely,"well baby visits",etc etc to the tune of 50bucks a pop or else.....you might get reported to child welfare for neglect-and what diseases were prevented as you waited in an overcrowded ,over booked office complete with either sick kids,sick adults etc ??? taking out your new child for this bs --? !

salome 9-20-2009 @ 10:37PM

What do you tell families who need more than routine medical care and don't have insurance? too bad?"
""katy""
++++++++++
ooooooooh please. They get treated and then they go over to the finance offices and get things started AS to who pays what and when.
There's no free ride and why aren't you aware of that ?

Katty 9-21-2009 @ 12:38PM

What you people don't get is that we already paid for the uninsured, its called emergency room visits and $12,000 billed to an insurance company for a routine vaginal delivery without complications.

It amazes me how people just don't get that millions of families without insurance are struggling, my husband and I pay $700 a month in insurance premiums and you know what, my hubby is a lawyer, it doesn't make a dent in our income, but it would make a huge dent in the average americans income. Why can't this country make sure that everyone gets insured? If you don't want to take your child in for routine medical care, that is your business, but I know a lot of families with kids born with conditions that if they hadn't had insurance before they were born they are certainly not getting insurance afterwords.

AND I happen to know a family left penniless after mounting medical bills had them lose their home, their daughter contracted leukemia at age 6, and ten years later they are still paying for the bills, they scrimp they save, but they lost it all, it was over a million dollars to save her life, including two bone marrow transplants, my husband was the donor. They even lived with me for a 3 months while they were getting back on their feet. So to walk around saying that those stories are just not out there just tells me that even if they were, you just wouldn't care.

SKL 9-21-2009 @ 1:15PM

Katty,

We are not unaware of the fact that uninsured people go to the ER on our dime. But we know it would cost a lot more to provide unnecessary "comprehensive care" to all the uninsured. Care that most of us who pay for our own insurance (yes I pay 100%) don't even get, because it would be a waste of our time and money.

Of the 90% of Americans who have health insurance that they are happy with, most would rather foot the bill for uninsured catastrophes than "comprehensively" insure the other 10%, most of whom will never have a "catastrophe."

The way I've always looked at insurance is: if you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to lose by not being insured. So don't cry to me about it. And if you have anything to lose, you'd better do your research and buy some catastrophic insurance (at least) and fight any government attempt to outlaw high-deductible choices. Don't cry to me about it. I have always lived lean but I always chose to buy insurance, because I considered it the responsible choice. It's not that I don't care about the trials of others. It's more accurate to say that the uninsured don't care about burdening me.

The American public is going to foot the bill for a catastrophic medical situation either way - whether as part of an insurance pool, or as taxpayers supporting Medicaid etc. But the difference is, right now that cost is manageable. If the government turns it into a mandatory, comprehensive, government-administered nightmare, the costs will multiply. And it will still be "heartless" people like me paying for it - we'll just be paying a lot more.

Glorious 9-22-2009 @ 5:14PM

Katty, you ask why this country can't insure everyone. Because this country is broke and cannot afford it. Why can't this country FEED everyone? Why can't this country clothe us all? Send us all on great vacations?
I have found by having an average cell phone, average car and not-a-mansion place to live I can afford coverage. I go to Starbucks less and buy used books instead of buying at Borders. Prescriptions are $4 at Wal-Mart. I saw a homeless man talking on an ipod once but he demands free healthcare. Everyone wants the best of everything and for the government to provide their healthcare. I don't think so.
There are resources to be had. My friend had a very sick baby. The baby did not survive and she had bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Heartbreaking and sad and that was 23 years ago. The bills have been paid, a little at a time and other children came along. But they never ever demanded that someone else take responsibility for their child or the child's care.
Hillary Clinton botched healthcare "reform" some years ago. Please leave us alone with the healthcare REFORM. 84% of us are happy with the way things are. We do NOT want Government dictating to us when how where we get health care.

Elizabeth 9-23-2009 @ 7:00AM

I have to say, I don't know what the solution is for health insurance, but I do know that there are millions of organizations and hospitals that will help children if and when they need medical attention. The ones who truly need the help are those aged 18-30 who cannot get insurance, either because they have to work and can't take enough classes to stay on their parents insurance, or because they can't afford insurance on their own because the job market is so bad. Children have always been cared for, it's what happens after high school and before they get that job with benefits that needs to be addressed.

I know that when I went to the hospital because I sliced my finger open, I had to pay $850 dollars, and they couldn't even stitch me up because there wasn't enough skin, so basically I paid that money for gauze and a splint. And when I went to the financial aid office, they told me they could not help me because I was over 22 and didn't have children at home. At the moment, I need an operation to fix my spina biffida, but I am not willing to go into hock for it, and odds are, if I went to go get insurance, they would say it is a preexisting condition and it wouldn't be covered anyway. So yes, LS, you can work things out, IF you meet the criteria. If you don't you are, like me and many others, stuck paying $500 for a band aid.

kari 9-23-2009 @ 3:02PM

Doctors don't keep kids healthy....parents do! Don't tell me I SHOULD take my kid to sit and wait in a doctor's office for an hour for the doctor to see them for 5 MINUTES and then have the doctor claim they are healthy and THEN take credit for it! Not my kids!

mommiedear 9-26-2009 @ 1:07AM

I iwhs this wasnt the case because young children especially toddlers and younger need regular check ups and vaccinations. When they are this young they may not be able to tell us there is a problem till it is too late and many health risks could be eliminated. Especially in the time of the H1N1 virus and many other virial and infectious disseases it is important to stay safe and current with vaciinations and staying in tip top health for parents and children....especially children. Moms on www.truuconfessions.com willl vouch for that!

Amy 10-02-2009 @ 12:18AM

I am a single mother of 2 children and I do not have health coverage . My children do but , My son has a vision problem in which he goes to therapy once a week for ! His vision care does not cover these visits and i have searched every avenue in our state to help with these bills ! Thier is nothing if I made less money I could get gov. assistance , but could not afford my home and bills . If I buy additional insurance it will only save me 10% of what the actual cost is after co pay . Since this issue will not physically cause him to be ill. I can not find any relief from these bills ! His eyes do not focus correctly and it is very frustrating for him in and out of school, he is unable to play sports which he loves because of it and the therapy is really helping with his handwriting and eye hand cordination ! So please tell me what do I do in this situation I already have a bill larger than the cost of my house ! In year 3

Rachel 10-05-2009 @ 1:29AM

"I am a single mother of 2 children and I do not have health coverage . My children do but , My son has a vision problem in which he goes to therapy once a week for ! His vision care does not cover these visits and i have searched every avenue in our state to help with these bills ! "

I'm not heartless, I sympathize with your situation. But the problem isn't health coverage as your children already have it, there is no guarantee a government health plan would cover it either. Or that they would provide the same treatment he's getting now. You say you've looked at every avenue in the state, but have you checked non-government options like nonprofit organizations? Is your hospital aware of your current financial difficulties? As someone else pointed out hospitals will try to work with you.

"Thier is nothing if I made less money I could get gov. assistance , but could not afford my home and bills."

I find it ironic how the government penalizes you and others like you for for your hard work. Another failure of government in action. And just another reason not to give them more power. Why should we give them more responsibilities over the lives of private citizens?

No one said life is easy. But we can't trust a fallible human institution, such as the government, to take care of all our personal health needs. Not knowing you, the best advice I can give is to manage your money well. There are people out there who are willing to help you- a good place to check may be your local Lions club for assistance. God bless!