Childrens health insurance pays off

A new study finds that Government-sponsored health insurance for low-income children boosts their access to care and improves their quality of life.

Reporting in the September issue of Pediatrics, researchers at the Rand Corp. studied more than 3,400 California children, aged 2 to 16, who were newly enrolled in the Healthy Families public health insurance program.

They found the children reported real improvements, such as feeling better physically, getting along better with their peers, and doing better in school.

Enrollment in the program also led to a sharp decline in the number of children who went without needed health care. At the start of enrollment, about 16 percent of parents reported that their children had gone without needed care within the previous year. That rate dropped to 7 percent by the second year of enrollment.