Children's Defense Fund

Health Coverage for All Children Campaign

HEALTH COVERAGE FOR ALL CHILDREN CAMPAIGN About the Campaign Top Ten Facts Reasons All Children Need Coverage Video Endorsing Organizations ALL HEALTHY CHILDREN ACT About the Act Co-Sponsors Download Free Counter GET INVOLVED Take Action: Email Your Legislator Lead the Discussion: Conversation Guide LEARN MORE Health Coverage Rising Costs Tax Credits? Public Support Uninsured Children Who Are the Uninsured? Uninsured Children in Each State Real Stories of Uninsured Children Medicaid & SCHIP About Medicaid & SCHIP Latest on SCHIP Medicaid Policy Update Children's Health Racial and Ethnic Disparities

Home > Health Coverage for All Children Campaign

Nearly nine million children in America are uninsured—that's one in nine.  The majority of uninsured children live in two-parent families; almost 90 percent have one working parent; and almost 90 percent are U.S. citizens. Healthy children are tomorrow’s graduates and our nation’s future workforce -- which is why it is crucial to ensure children have health coverage and get the care they need to maximize healthy development and reach their full potential in life.

Children need help urgently! We can't continue to debate how many or how few children should have health coverage. It's time to stand up for affordable, comprehensive coverage forall children now!

LATEST RESOURCES Steer the Conversation Help inform friends and family about children's health care coverage with our Children's Health Coverage Conversation Guide. The High Cost of Health Care Test your knowledge about the cost of health coverage by taking our quiz. New Video! Susan Gates, CDF general counsel, talks about uninsured children, CDF's Healthy Coverage for All Children Campaign and the All Healthy Children Act.

Working parents should be able to afford to take their children to the doctor. Even having health coverage is no longer a guarantee that families can get the health care they need. Families are struggling to meet health care expenses that are growing faster than wages and inflation, at the same time that other costs (such as food and gas) are also rising. At the same time, covered health benefits are eroding. This problem affects the entire community.

Communities incur increased costs when their children are not insured, often because of increased use of emergency rooms and longer hospital stays. For example, in Arizona, an uninsured child costs the community $2,100 more than a child with Medicaid or SCHIP.

Fortunately, this problem is solvable. Join CDF's Healthy Coverage for All Children Campaign in advocating for a health care system that works for all children and families by ensuring access and affordability. CDF proudly endorses the All Healthy Children Act as a smart, achievable, cost-effective solution. This legislation:

• Ensures that every child and pregnant woman has access to affordable, seamless health coverage and health services.
• Guarantees all children and pregnant women comprehensive benefits, which must include all medically necessary services.
• Simplifies the application and enrollment process to make it easy for all children to get covered and stay covered. This must include eliminating known barriers to enrollment and instituting automatic enrollment of eligible children.

It is time to take action. Every step we take to improve the lives of children improves the lives of all of us. Find out what you can do today to solve this crisis by strengthening support for the All Healthy Children Act.

• Learn More About the All Healthy Children Act
• Take Action: Email Your Legislator
• Lead the Discussion: Conversation Guide

Susan Gates, CDF's general counsel, talks about uninsured children, CDF's Healthy Coverage for All Children Campaign and the All Healthy Children Act. This interview can also be found at health08.org, an effort by the Kaiser Family Foundation to provide a central hub for resources and information about health policy issues in the 2008 election.