ABC News Examines Health, Cost Implications of Uninsured Children in First of Three-Part Series

ABC's "World News" on Sunday examined the issue of uninsured children, focusing on families that cannot afford private health insurance but have annual incomes that are too high to qualify for Medicaid. About nine million U.S. children do not have health insurance, which can contribute to delayed medical care or even death, according to "World News."

Uninsured children are more likely to receive inferior medical care compared with insured children, "World News" reports. In addition, a recent Families USA study found that children who are uninsured also are more likely to die when hospitalized than insured children. Ron Pollack, president and CEO of Families USA, said, "If you judged a country by how it treats its most vulnerable people, we're certainly failing when you leave nine million children behind."

Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, said lack of health insurance "not only costs lives of children and stress for families, but it also costs taxpayers money." When asked about providing coverage for uninsured children, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said that "there is a lot of talk about it, but thus far, we have not achieved it." He added, "I think a moment is coming where we may see significant progress."

ABC News in coming weeks will examine barriers to enrollment in health insurance programs for children and profile a program that provides health insurance for children in working families (Harris, "World News," ABC, 6/3).
Video of the segment and expanded ABC News coverage are available online.