From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-566162-828939
HOUSTON (UPI) -- An estimated 8 million U.S. children are uninsured,
but providing them health insurance would yield substantial economic
benefits, researchers said.
"Providing health insurance to all children in America will yield
substantial economic benefits," Vivian Ho of the Baylor College of
Medicine and Rice University's Baker Institute said in a statement.
Ho and Marah Short, also of the Baker Institute in Houston, based
their research on recent studies published in peer-reviewed journals
to examine the evidence regarding the economic impact of failing to
insure all children in the United States.
The study said that children would receive better healthcare and enjoy
better health, thereby improving their productivity as adults, the
researchers said.
The cost incurred by providing universal coverage to children "will be
offset by the increased value of additional life years and improved
health-related quality of life gained from improved healthcare," Ho
said. "From a societal perspective, universal coverage for children
appears to be cost-saving."
The State Children's Health Insurance Program covered 6.6 million
children at some point in 2006 and while every state has an approved
plan, several million children are remain uninsured because their
working parents make above the income cutoffs, work for employers that
do not offer health insurance and cannot afford private health
insurance.
The report is at
http://www.bakerinstitute.org/publications/HPF-pub-HoShortUninsuredChildren-060309.pdf/view.