Health Affairs

Child Health: A Policy Progress Report

The peer-reviewed policy journal Health Affairs has published its first-ever thematic issue devoted to child health policy concerns with support from Nemours. Some of the major papers by the nation's leading pediatricians and child health researchers includes:

C. Everett Koop on the role of poverty, obesity and other factors on child health
The transformation of child health and persistence of social disparities
Advances and retreats in children's health insurance coverage and new proposals to reach universal coverage
A call for equity in how the U.S. allocates health resources between all vulnerable populations - children and elderly
The role of research - how do we get evidence-based medicine to work?

"The Academy endorsed the need for this special issue on children," said American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) President Carden Johnston, M.D. "Clearly we hope this edition serves as an impetus to move the child health policy agenda forward."

Health Affairs Book The 292-page issue is posted at www.HealthAffairs.org, along with a new Web-Exclusive survey on American's views about the adequacy of health care for children and the elderly. Article abstracts and select full-text content, including the Koop interview and the Web survey, is accessible to all Web viewers at no charge. For more on Nemours' interest in children's health, visit www.nemours.org. AAP has contributed space in AAP News in support of this important debate on the future of child health.

"With the help of Nemours and Health Affairs, we are making great strides toward creating a healthier childhood for our nation's children and a healthier childhood leads to a healthier adulthood," said Dr Johnston.

For more information, send an email to KidsVoice@nemours.org.

The alliance for Health Reform, in partnership with The Nemours Foundation, held a briefing on the future of children's health and health care.