According to a new study supported by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Center for Research Resources, about 2.3 million children a year, mostly from low- to middle-income families and have no health care coverage to pay for preventive or other medical needs: even though at least one of their parents is insured.

The new study, published in the Oct. 22/29, 2008, online issue of JAMA, is one of the first to examine the characteristics of uninsured children under age 19 whose parents were insured all year. These children account for a quarter of the estimated 9 million uninsured children in the United States.

Researchers led by Jennifer DeVoe, M.D., of the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, studied 2002-2005 national data from AHRQ’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and found that children from low-income families where at least one parent had health insurance were more than twice as likely to be uninsured at some point during the year as were similar children from high-income families. They were also 73 percent more likely to be uninsured for more than 6 months. In 2005, a typical, low-income family of four earned between roughly $24,000 and $39,000, whereas the typical high-income family of four earned more than $77,000 a year.

Children from middle-income families — those earning between $39,000 and $77,000 a year for a typical four-member family — had a 48 percent greater chance of being uninsured with at least one insured parent at some point during the year compared with high-income children and had a 56 percent higher likelihood of being uninsured for over 6 months.

The researchers also found that:

— Children living with an insured single parent had two times the odds
of being uninsured at any point during the year as children living
with two married people of whom at least one was insured and more than
twice the odds of having a coverage gap lasting 6 months or more.

— Children with at least one parent who did not complete high school
were 44 percent more likely than children whose parent or parents were
high school graduates to be uninsured at any point during the year,
and they had 87 percent greater odds of being uninsured for more than
6 months.

— Hispanic children had a 65 percent higher probability than
non-Hispanic, white children of being uninsured at some point during
the year with an insured parent and an 80 percent greater chance of
being uninsured for more than 6 months.

— Children whose parents had Medicaid or other public insurance were 54
percent less likely to be uninsured at any point during the year than
children with privately insured parents and 59 percent less likely to
be uninsured for more than 6 months.

— Children living in the South and those in the West had 70 percent and
52 percent greater odds, respectively, of being uninsured at some
point during a year with a parent covered all year, compared to
children living in the Northeast. They also had an 83 percent and 49
percent greater likelihood, respectively, of being uninsured for more
than 6 months.

The study was supported in part by the Biostatistics Shared Resource of the Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon Clinical Translational Research Institute, which is part of a national Clinical and Translational Science Award consortium funded through the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health.

Related Health News:

1. New Study Shows Uninsured Crisis Wildly Overestimated The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) has released the results of a new study. that shows that the “widely employed estimate of 47 million uninsured Americans...
2. Uncovering the Secrets of Getting California Health Insurance to Pay for Autism Treatments LOS ANGELES, April 9 /PRNewswire/ — Autism is a neurobiological condition which is often responsive to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, yet most health insurance...
3. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Kentucky Statement on Senate Health Care Reform Bill Saturday, Senator Reid released his Manager’s amendment to the health care reform legislation currently being discussed in the U.S. Senate. One provision in the amendment...
4. Nu Skin Child Hunger Relief Effort Surpasses 150 Million Meals Nourish the Children(R) Promotes Sustained Food Donations PROVO, Utah, April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE: NUS) today announced more than 150 million meals...
5. Top Blue Cross and Blue Shield-Branded Managed Care Organizations Lost More Than One Million Members in the First Half of 2008 HealthLeaders-InterStudy’s Managed Market Surveyor-Rx Evaluates How Medical and Pharmacy Lives are Covered at National, State and MSA Levels NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 11 /PRNewswire/ — HealthLeaders-InterStudy,...