Americans like to think of themselves as child-oriented. We do everything for the kids - or so the theory goes. Unfortunately, the theory has a few holes in it.
Children have a 20 percent poverty rate, well above the national average of 13.5 percent. What's more, as Scripps Howard News Service noted recently, children tend to show up more and more often in crime statistics - as abused children, abandoned children, violent children, teenage drug dealers.Now comes word from the Children's Defense Fund that many parents are losing, or never had, company health insurance. As a result, 8.4 million children - about one in eight - have no medical coverage at all, not even under Medicaid.
The soaring cost of health care has a lot to do with it. Some employers offer no medical coverage or coverage at unaffordable rates. The result is that children get little medical care. Who can afford $50 for the pediatrician or $65 for the dentist, much less $390 to set a broken finger?
As Congress sorts through a variety of plans for reforming health insurance, one thing is certain: Children need better medical care. A society that does not make sure they get it is a society that is short-changing its own future.