About Children's Health

There are more than 8 million uninsured children in America – that's one in ten. Every 42 seconds, a child is born uninsured. More than 2,000 children are born uninsured every day. Health care costs for working families continue to rise, making it difficult to afford insurance or access timely care. The failing state of our nation’s health care system affects every person in the United States, insured and uninsured alike. If we are to end the problem of children growing up without health coverage and ensure affordable coverage, real health reform is necessary.

Despite significant improvements in child health systems over the past few decades, the United States continues to lag behind most industrialized countries, and even some less developed countries, in ensuring all children access to vital health and mental health services.

Of the more than 4 million babies born in the United States each year, more than 330,000 of them are born at low birthweight, and almost 500,000 are born to teen mothers.  About 28,000 infants will die before their first birthday.  And the U.S. is also the only Western industrialized country not to guarantee health coverage for all its children. More than eight million million children in our country have no health coverage – and every 42 seconds another uninsured child is born. Almost 90 percent of these children live in households with at least one working parent and nearly 90 percent are citizens of this country. Lack of access to health coverage for all children helps explain some of the considerable racial disparities in children's health outcomes that can result in different life paths for children from their earliest years.

Since 1973, CDF has worked at the community, state and national levels to ensure that all children in America get the healthy start they need to realize their full potential. We have played a pivotal role in protecting and expanding Medicaid child health coverage, and we were a lead organization in the creation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). These programs serve about 34 million children in America.

In 2006, CDF began the Health Coverage for All Children Campaign, a national, state, and local initiative to guarantee comprehensive health and mental health coverage for all children and pregnant women in America. In this campaign, CDF has convened hundreds of groups and secured endorsements from almost 1,300 organizations representing more than 60 million people throughout the United States. In 2007, the All Healthy Children Act (H.R. 1688/S. 1564) was introduced by Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).  The Act was the only legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2007 that provided access to comprehensive health and mental health coverage for every child and pregnant woman in America and had more co-sponsors than any other child health legislation in 2007. As a result of these efforts, CDF laid the groundwork to continue the work with the 111th Congress to cover all children and pregnant women in America.