Study Finds that Being Uninsured Does Affect Health Outcomes for Children in Hospitals

Posted on October 31, 2009
Filed Under Access to Care, HMOs & Health Plans, Healthcare Reform, Insurers/Payors, Other |

The Children’s Center at Johns Hopkins conducted a study including 23 million children from 37 different states between 1988 and 2005. The study showed that uninsured children hospitalizations compared with children having either private or government insurance had a 60 percent higher chance of dying. The study also indicated that at least 1,000 hospitalized children died annually due to a lack of insurance. This means that uninsured children deaths comprise nearly half of all children deaths nationally.

Though the study was not directed at cause, the study also showed that uninsured children are more likely to end up in emergency rooms, where the condition may have worsened by the time care is administered. The time spent in a hospital between insured and uninsured children varied. On average, uninsured children were in the hospital for less than a day when they died. Overall hospitals charges for uninsured children was significantly less than for insured children (less than half).

The author of the study, Dr. Abdullah, did not believe in a causal connection between the amount of care providers gave and insurance status. He noted that children often arrived at the hospital too late for any revival to occur.  These discrepancies are unique because children do not die often. However, nearly seven million children remain uninsured in the United States.  This study helps to show the vast disparate health outcomes that not having insurance can create. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 14 million children will be covered by CHIP by 2013.

Commentary: As the article mentions, such studies help shine light on a moral obligation we face in granting children insurance. Their insurance status is not a choice but a predetermined situation. Uninsured children are more likely to have unmet medical needs, which leads to poorer quality of life. Having such a high number of uninsured children also contributes to overall costs to the health care system, as these children are more likely to end up in emergency rooms where services are expensive and may not be of the highest quality. Thus, it is to the benefit of society overall to keep the number of uninsured children as low as possible

The New York Times, October 30, 2009.

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