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Series
Reports |
Access to Health Care Part 1: Children
This report presents national estimates of access to medical care and unmet health care needs for children through 17 years of age by selected sociodemographic variables including sex, age, race/ethnicity, family income, family structure, place of residence, and health status. In addition, the impact of children's health insurance status on access to care is described.
Data Highlights:
In 1993, 94 percent of
children in the U.S. had a regular source of medical care; 6 percent, 4.2 million
children, had no regular source of care. Family income was an important variable
associated with children having a usual source of health care. Overall, poor children were
at greater risk of not having a regular source of health care than wealthier children. The
likelihood of having a regular source of care rose with family income from 89 percent for
children with family incomes less than 20,000 per year, to 89 percent for children in
families with incomes of 35,000 or more.
Among children having a regular
place of care, 84 percent received that care in a private doctor's office, 11 percent
received it in a clinic, and one percent used the hospital emergency room. Important
differences in place of regular care existed by race/ethnicity, place of residence, and
family structure. Overall, among white children having a regular source of care, 92
percent used a private doctor's office compared with 67 percent of black and 70 percent of
Hispanic children.
In the United States, over 7.3
million children had difficulty obtaining at least one of the medical services they needed
in 1993. Over 1.3 million children were unable to get needed medical care, and for 2.7
million children, medical care was delayed because of worry about the cost of care. Over
4.2 million children were unable to get dental care, and over 800,000 went without
prescription medicine and glasses. Also, according to respondents, over 270,000 children
needed mental health services, but were not able to get them.
Keywords: child health, access to care, health insurance, usual source of care, health care utilization, unmet need, uninsured
This report can be purchased from the Government Printing Office (GPO). GPO stock number 017-022-01379-7, price: $4.75
Series
Reports |
This page last reviewed
January 11, 2007
|
