America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007

Usual Source of Health Care

The health of children depends at least partially on their access to health services. Health care for children includes physical examinations, preventive care, health education, observations, screening, immunizations, and sick care.⁴⁸ Having a usual source of care—a particular person or place a child goes for sick and preventive care—facilitates the timely and appropriate use of pediatric services.^{49, 50} Emergency rooms are excluded here as a usual source of care because their focus on emergency care generally excludes the other elements of health care.⁵¹

Indicator HC2: Percentage of children ages 0–17 with no usual source of health care by type of health insurance, 1993–2005

• In 2005, 5 percent of children had no usual source of health care.
• Uninsured children are much more likely to have no usual source of care than are children who have health insurance. For example, children who were uninsured were nearly 16 times as likely as those with private insurance to have no usual source of care in 2005.
• There are differences in the percentage of children having no usual source of care by type of health insurance coverage. In 2005, children with public insurance, such as Medicaid, were more likely to have no usual source of care than were children with private insurance (4 percent and 2 percent, respectively).
• In 2005, 9 percent of children in poor and 8 percent of children in near-poor families (those with family incomes less than 100 percent and 100–199 percent of the poverty level, respectively) had no usual source of health care, compared with 3 percent of children in non-poor families (those with family incomes of 200 percent or more of the poverty level).
• Older children are slightly more likely than younger children to lack a usual source of health care. In 2005, 6 percent of children ages 5–17 had no usual source of care, compared with 3 percent of children ages 0–4.

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