Traverse City Record-Eagle

Forums

Related Photos

May 21, 2009

Forum: Health care crisis hurts kids

By MARIANNE UDOW-PHILLIPS

Here's a statistic that will make your eyes pop, especially given Michigan's economic situation: Nearly half of the estimated 37,000 hospitalizations of Michigan children 5 and younger in 2006 could have been prevented by timely and effective primary care.

That's right, thousands of expensive hospital stays didn't have to happen, millions of dollars didn't have to be spent.

Michigan taxpayers and policymakers should be taking notice.

If these young children had seen a doctor early on, they wouldn't have ended up in the hospital. That's terrible news on a human level, considering the fright and pain that severe illness creates for young children and their families. But it's also terrible news on a fiscal level, because hospital care is much more expensive than a doctor's office visit.

Ultimately, everyone in Michigan pays for the lack of preventive and early care for children, because we all end up dealing with the consequences of severe and chronic illness.

The statistic on needless hospitalizations is from the Kids Count in Michigan 2008 Data Book, released earlier this year by the Michigan League for Human Services and Michigan's Children. The figure is likely to be even more dramatic today. As downsizing and unemployment have grown in Michigan, fewer families and children have health insurance, and we all understand how that can cut off access to care.

The number of uninsured young children in Michigan grew rapidly in 2007 -- from 4.6 percent in 2006 to 7.8 percent in 2007 -- according to the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation's "Cover Michigan" report. (See www.chrt.org.) The numbers for 2008 are likely to find more children and families without health coverage or facing high deductibles and copayments.

Investing in health coverage that includes primary and preventive care for all children in our state should be understood as an economic imperative as much as a human one. Providing a medical home for all of our children -- where care is coordinated and patients and families involved -- can help avoid those costly hospitalizations identified in the Kids Count report.

Among those working to establish this new approach to children's health is Michigan's Early Childhood Investment Corp. Established in 2005, the public-private agency partners with 55 Great Start Collaboratives, each working locally to make sure every young child in Michigan has the services and programs they need to thrive. Creating pediatric medical homes for all children is an Early Childhood priority and part of the group's efforts to give Michigan's youngest learners a "Great Start."

As stated in the Kids Count report, "Good health at the very outset of life provides a foundation for lifelong well-being." We know that prevention and early intervention are key to avoiding more expensive medical care and lifelong ailments.

Now all we have to do is invest according to what we know.

About the author: Marianne Udow-Phillips is director of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation in Ann Arbor, a partnership between the University of Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

About the forum: The forum is a periodic column of opinion written by Record-Eagle readers in their areas of interest or expertise. Submissions of 500 words or less may be made by e-mailing letters@record-eagle.com. Please include biographical information and a photo.

Text Only