2008 Election Center
2008 Election Center
ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE: AAP Principles on Access
The Academy is dedicated to the health of all children. In 2008 and beyond, we promise continuing in-depth discussions of health care reform. Both presidential candidates mention children in their plans for reforming the health care system.
From the Academy's perspective, health insurance alone, public or private, is not sufficient to achieve access to quality health care for all children. But what does access to care mean?
Pediatricians know that access to health care is not just an insurance card. Many children have excellent health care coverage through Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), but their access to quality care can be limited. Good access demands high quality. As pediatricians, we strive to improve the care that we provide as well as learn how to improve health outcomes through care coordination in the medical home.
The Access Subcommittee of the Committee on Federal Government Affairs endeavored to include these and other important considerations in recommending the access principles to the AAP Board of Directors, which adopted the AAP Endorsed Principles on Access as AAP policy:
- Every child must have quality health insurance.
- Health insurance should be a right, regardless of income, for all children, pregnant women, their families and ultimately all individuals.
- All health insurance plans should have a comprehensive, age-appropriate benefits package such as that of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
- All children should have access to primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists, pediatric surgical specialists, pediatric mental and dental professionals, and hospitals with appropriate pediatric expertise.
- All health plans should have payment rates that assure that children receive all recommended and needed services.
- Health insurance should be fully portable and provide continuous coverage.
- Administrative aspects should be streamlined and simplified.
- Families should have a choice of clinician(s).
- Health plans should complement and coordinate with existing maternal and child health programs to ensure maximum health benefits to families.
The Academy uses its Principles for Health Care Access as the gold standard to evaluate expanded access proposals at the federal level. The plan that is most closely aligned with the AAP Access Principles is the long-held Academy priority embodied in the MediKids bill.
A Decade of MediKids
The Academy, a leader in the fight for access to health care for children, is the only specialty medical society to have a plan that meets all of its principles, and to have the chairmen of the relevant congressional committees backing that plan. The MediKids plan, introduced in May 2007 by Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, and later by Senate Finance Health Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) in December 2007, would provide the best safety net for children. Introduced in the last five congressional sessions, MediKids would achieve the goal of access to quality health care for every child by providing automatic coverage and increasing payment rates to Medicare levels. MediKids also provides a comprehensive benefit package, and easy administration, portability and choice for families.
There are many ideas about how to best achieve quality health care coverage for all children. We evaluate every plan, whether from a presidential campaign or in federal legislation using the AAP Access Principles as a guideline.
As the nation moves forward in expanding access to insurance for children, the Academy will judge proposals by using these principles. The goal remains access to quality health care for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults.
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The above includes excerpts from a July 2007 AAP News article.Read it in its entirety at http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/28/7/13.