The health needs of indigent children, for example, are framed as a social welfare issue and are funded through need-based initiatives. But the evidence suggests the nation falls far short of this goal. This is true for both children and adults but we profess a commitment to do otherwise for children. The fragmented nature of health care financing and delivery in this country has resulted in the lack of a coherent, unified approach to services. But one of the United States' paradoxes, is that despite the florid rhetoric that suffuses public discourse about children and their well-being, millions of youngsters remain uninsured and even more are underinsured, meaning that their insurer does not pay for one or more services health care providers deem necessary ( Kogan, Newacheck, Honberg, & Strickland, 2005).Īs the hyperbole surrounding 2009 health care reform debates revealed, one of the nation's more vexing and enduring policy problems is whether, and if so, how much, health care should be provided to those who cannot afford to pay for it themselves. There appears to be consensus that all children are owed a healthy and “good” childhood by society. When it comes to providing a social safety net for children, Americans are unambivalent, at least rhetorically. Just a few days earlier, Governor Sarah Palin, who professed ideological divergence from the President on most issues throughout her vice-presidential candidacy in 2008, declared her commitment to children in her State of the State address to Alaska's citizens, affirming her vision of a “culture of life where every child is cherished and valued” ( “State of the State Speech for Alaska,” 2009). On Februwhen President Obama signed the Children's Health Insurance bill, legislation designed to provide health insurance for youngsters who did not qualify for Medicaid, the federal program for the nation's poorest children, he extolled: “Today, with one of the first bills I sign – reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program – we fulfill one of the highest responsibilities we have: to ensure the health and well-being of our nation's children” ( “Obama Signs Children's Health Insurance Bill,” 2009). “…Tuberculosis cannot be eradicated if we do not begin with the child.” ( Knopf, 1907)
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