HEALTH-INSURANCE AND UTILIZATION OF MEDICAL-CARE FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL HEALTH-CARE NEEDS

Based on analyses of the 1988 National Center for Health Statistics, N ational Health Interview Survey, Child Health Supplement, this study e xamines the insurance coverage and utilization of physicians, hospital s, and prescribed medicine among the 9.6 million U.S. children with sp ecial health care needs, defined as children who had one or more selec ted chronic conditions that caused them to experience pain, discomfort , or being upset often or all of the time in the last year, or who wer e limited in their major childhood activities (playing or going to sch ool) as a result of these or other impairments or health problems. The findings confirmed that substantial variation in access to routine me dical care exists among these children. Though health status is an imp ortant predictor of which children use services in general, poor, mino rity children who lived with their mother or someone other than their parents, or those without insurance or an identifiable regular medical provider were most likely to experience financial barriers to access or were less apt to seek care than other children with comparable need s. Access to routine medical care remains particularly problematic for these subsets of children with special health care needs.