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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > ALL KIDS DESERVE HEALTH INSURANCE
Article published - May 23, 2007
Credit: Marin Independent Journal
All kids deserve health insurance
Written by Dr. Alicia Suski
ALL CHILDREN deserve to be healthy, and all children deserve health insurance.
As a pediatrician and as a mother of toddling twins, I am reminded on a daily basis of the importance of health care for infants and children.
For proper preventive pediatric health care, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children receive 15 well-baby appointments before the age of six.
These recommendations include a schedule of more than 30 immunizations, developmental screenings, counseling about child safety, nutrition and school readiness.
And that's just for healthy children. Additional visits are necessary if a child has significant medical needs.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also emphasizes the great importance of continuity of care in comprehensive health supervision and the need to avoid fragmentation of care.
All children deserve comprehensive health care, but not all children have it. An estimated 1,000 children in Marin may be uninsured.
First 5 Marin Children and Families Commission is working hard to correct this injustice. As an active partner in Marin's Children's Health Initiative, we have helped 1,900 children enroll in health insurance who were ineligible for federal programs. In addition, we are paying the health-care premiums for uninsured children 5 and younger in the county.
First 5 Marin also provided $300,000 for the Children's Oral Health Project because we now know that oral health is directly linked to overall health.
In the last fiscal year, our Oral Health Project provided screening, dental care and education to more than 650 children at preschools and day-care centers throughout Marin. Many of these children had never seen a dentist before.
Unfortunately, the funding provided by First 5 Marin is not enough to provide comprehensive dental and health insurance to every child in Marin. And other California counties are facing the same problem.
The state Legislature is addressing the issue of California's uninsured this year, and there are dozens of health-related bills pending in the state Senate and Assembly.
Many of these bills would provide expanded access to health care, but just a few bills would provide comprehensive health insurance to every child in California.
This is a critical decision-making session for health care in the Legislature, and it is important that our representatives in the Legislature hear from their concerned constituents. It's important that the governor hear from us. too.
It takes just a moment to write a note voicing your support for health-care legislation that will provide comprehensive health coverage for all children, regardless of income status or immigration status.
You may write to Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at: State Capitol, Sacramento, 95814.
Please lend your support to statewide efforts to ensure that every child is healthy and every child has health insurance.
It doesn't just make fiscal sense. It's the right thing to do.
Dr. Alicia Suski is chairwoman of First 5 Marin Children and Families Commission and a pediatrician at the Marin Community Clinic.
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