Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117953

Gregory D. Stevens, PhD, Division of Community Health, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, 1000 S. Fremont Avenue, Building A7, Rm 7411, Alhambra, CA 91803, 626-457-4049, gstevens@usc.edu

Background: In California, nearly one-million children lack insurance coverage. About two-thirds are actually eligible for public health insurance programs such as Medi-Cal, and Healthy Families.

Purpose: To examine the health status and access to care of children who are eligible for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, but not enrolled, and to estimate the potential impact on access to care associated with enrolling these children.

Study Design: Analysis of 19,485 children (ages 0-19) from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey.

Main Outcome Measure: General health status, regular source of care, physician visit and dental visit in the past year.

Results: Children eligible for public coverage but who are not enrolled report poorer primary care compared to both the privately insured and their peers who are enrolled in public coverage. While there were no statistically significant disparities in health status for eligible, but uninsured children, about 11% fewer of these eligible children reported a physician visit in the past year compared to their publicly enrolled peers, 21% fewer had a regular source of care, and 28% fewer had a dental visit. Enrolling these eligible children may lead to approximately 112,000 more children having a physician visit during the year, 214,000 more children reporting a regular source of care, and 285,000 children having a dental visit.

Conclusion: While not a silver bullet, an important first step to reducing disparities in access to care for children is to assure that vulnerable children who are currently eligible for public health insurance programs become enrolled.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will be able to describe the potential impact on health status and access to primary care of enrolling uninsured children who are eligible for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families in coverage.

Keywords: Access to Care, Health Insurance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.