It's vital that kids have insurance

A new report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that having health insurance makes an enormous difference in whether kids receive the care they need, especially if they are chronically ill.

The study shows insured children are three times more likely to visit a doctor's office in the course of a year than are uninsured children.

Insured kids are also far more likely to have had a regular checkup to keep them healthy.

This report should remind us all how important SCHIP and Medicaid are for America's families, especially those with seriously ill children.

When kids with asthma or diabetes go without care, what could be a minor health problem can quickly turn into a major one.

In Illinois, about 130,000 children with chronic conditions are covered by SCHIP or Medicaid, allowing them to get the regular checkups, medication and treatment they need.

Without these programs, they would likely be uninsured, forced to gamble each day that their chronic illness won't require any medical attention.

Despite the success of public insurance programs, millions of kids remain uninsured. The latest census numbers show that more than nine million children remain uninsured nationwide and 250,000 of those children live here in Illinois.

It is wrong and against our values as Americans that children of working families are denied health care.

Politics as usual in Springfield is what got us into this cancerous health care crisis in the first place. Not taking action to resolve it for the past two years means that nothing has changed.

Once again, it is the budgets of families, businesses, providers and health care consumers of Illinois that continue to suffer needlessly.

Jim Duffett

Executive Director

Campaign for Better Health Care

Champaign