The health of children significantly depends on their access to health care services. Despite the improved health outcomes for children in the U.S. due to decreased rates of communicable diseases, recent economic and social changes have led to challenges to children’s health and their need for health services (Racine et al., 2014). Some of the health needs for children include chronic illness treatment, preventive care, prescription medicine, dental care, glasses, and mental health care. However, most uninsured children and those from low-income families have unmet health needs due to a lack of health insurance. The purpose of this assignment is to compare the administrative agendas of Presidents Trump, Obama, and Bush concerning health insurance for low-income children.
| Identify the Population Health concern you selected. | Health insurance for low-income children. | ||
| Describe the Population Health concern you selected and the factors that contribute to it. | Low-income children refer to children whose family income is above the eligibility for Medicaid but below the 200% poverty level, which is about $32,000 for a family of four. These children have high rates of uninsurance. Uninsurance inhibits access to care and significantly affects the health outcomes of U.S. children. Among the approximately 47 million uninsured Americans, more than 9 million are uninsured children. High uninsurance rates among low-income children are attributed to low family income, family structure, and racial, ethnic, and cultural factors. | ||
| Administration (President Name) | President Trump | President Obama | President Bush |
| Describe the administrative agenda focus related to this issue for the current and two previous presidents. | President Trump’s agenda was to repeal and block grants for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program to the states (Saltzman & Eibner 2016). | President Obama’s administrative agenda was to ensure the health and well-being of children in the U.S (Hern, 2020). | President Bush’s agenda was to expand public program coverage, particularly for children and low-income individuals and families (Gorin & Moniz, 2007). |
| Identify the allocations of financial and other resources that the current and two previous presidents dedicated to this issue. | In 2017, President Trump proposed cutting CHIP by 20%.In 2018, the Trump administration proposed slashing CHIP $7 billion.In 2019, the president’s budget included an almost $1.5 trillion cut to Medicaid . | Obama signed a bill that added $32.8 billion to the CHIP program (Hern, 2020).The amount allowed coverage of an additional 4.1 million children. | President Bush increased funding to commit health centers to help individuals that live in underserved and rural areas, including many uninsured people, low-income individuals, migrant farmworkers, homeless individuals, and children (Gorin & Moniz, 2007). |
| Explain how each of the presidential administrations approached the issue. | President Trump increased barriers to accessing CHIP benefit programs through increasing burdens and imposing work requirements (Saltzman & Eibner 2016). | President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2009 into law (Racine et al., 2014). The law provided health care coverage for an additional 4 million children and pregnant women, including ‘lawfully residing immigrant’ pregnant with no waiting period (Racine et al., 2014). | President Bush vetoed two attempts to expand the CHIP program further (Gorin & Moniz, 2007).However, he helped states extend coverage to approximately 2.6 million low-income Americans eligible under Medicaid and the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by granting states waivers and approving state plan amendments.He created an optional program for immigrant children, which improved access to health insurance for 423,000 children. |