Health Care

             I believe that every child deserves to start life with healthy bodies and minds. All children need access to complete health and mental health services that provide preventive care when they are well and treatment when they are sick. But today, 11.3 million children, more than 90 percent of them in working families have no health insurance.
             11.3 million children age 18 and under are uninsured, the largest number ever reported by the Census Bureau. More than 90 percent of uninsured children have one or more parents who work. Other aspects of uninsured children include the following:
             œ Three in five live in two-parent families.
             œ Two-thirds have family incomes above the poverty level, but 70 percent have incomes below $26,660 a year for a family of three (200 percent of the federal poverty level in 1997).
             The majority of uninsured children are in the group aimed by the new child health legislation. Their parents earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford any health coverage for their child or children. Many of the parents get up every morning; go to work, pay their taxes, and abide by the laws cannot provide their kids with health insurance.
             In 1996, 70 percent of all Americans added to the ranks of the uninsured were children. The employer-based health insurance system is collapsing for children, as businesses cut their support for dependent coverage.
             Since 1989, children have lost private health coverage at twice the rate of adults. (Bureau of the Census, March 1990 and March 1997 Current Population Surveys). Every day, the number of children without private insurance grows by roughly 3,000. (Bureau of the Census, March 1997 Current Population Survey). As recently as 1980, the majority of employees at medium-to-large companies had employers who paid 100 percent of family health insurance costs. (Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls...

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Health Care. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 09:59, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/72684.html