This is a blog for the Mental Health Policy Class at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

October 12, 2007

Kids get inadequate health care

As Washington debates children's health insurance, a startling study finds that kids who regularly see doctors get the right care less than half the time — whether it's preschool shots or chlamydia tests for teen girls. The findings, from the first comprehensive look at children's health care quality, are particularly troubling because nearly all the 1,536 children in the nationwide study had insurance. Eight-two percent were covered by private insurance. Three-quarters were white, and all lived in or near large or midsized cities. Two experts called the findings "shocking." Others said minority children, those with more-restrictive government insurance, and the millions with no insurance at all certainly fare even worse.

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