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July 31, 2003

Good News on Child Health Insurance

The 1997 State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is paying off:

Overall, 7.8 million children were without health insurance at some point last year, a drop of 1.8 million in just three years.

Still, this comes at the same time or may have helped facilitate private companies dropping many children off their company health planss.

At the same time, private coverage declined. Between 1999 and 2002, a total of 2 million fewer children received health insurance from private insurers as more companies dropped benefits for workers and their families.

This is the problem with partial solutions-- they push on one part of the health care system, then some other part changes to make the problem worse there.

The only real answer is comprehensive universal health care. It's the right thing to do and, as importantly, it costs less.

Every European country and Canada has universal health care and they spend less on health care, with better health results.

Posted by Nathan at July 31, 2003 08:02 AM