President Trump wants $5 billion right now for his border wall, and another $7 billion (or maybe $13 billion) later on to finish the project. What else could we do with that kind of money? Here’s an idea: with $12 billion we could cover ALL 3.9 million uninsured children in the US today, and still have a couple billion left over. Put another way: for every mile of Trump’s wall, I estimate that we could give health insurance to at least 6,600 kids next year.
Living without health insurance is often devastating for kids and for their families. Uninsured children are less likely to receive high quality primary care and life-saving vaccines, and they are more likely to delay or forego care when they are sick. Uninsured kids miss more school days, and their families sometimes face crushing medical bills. If children without insurance are hospitalized, they are 60% more likely to die during their stay than hospitalized children with insurance.
Instead of helping kids, the Trump administration is undermining the health of our children. The President’s attempts to cripple the Affordable Care Act began by drastically reducing funding for outreach and assistance with insurance enrollment. During his first year in office, 276,000 children lost coverage, reversing nearly a decade of progress. Furthermore, the President wanted to cut $7 billion from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, in addition to slashing funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and housing assistance, programs that shield millions of kids from malnutrition and homelessness. Meanwhile, his ill-considered immigration policies pose an immediate threat to the thousands of infants and children seized from their parents, some of whom are not yet reunited with their families.
The neglect of America’s children has been a part of our sorry health statistics for decades. Compared to children in similarly wealthy nations with national health insurance, children born in the U.S. are 76% more likely to die before their first birthday, and 55% more likely to die between the ages of 1 and 18. Infant mortality rates in the US are worse than 27 other countries including Belarus, Slovakia, and Cuba. Despite these shameful figures, in some states like Texas, which has the highest number of uninsured children, more than 1 in 10 kids goes without health insurance.
Experts from across the political spectrum have debunked the border wall as “wasteful,” “harmful” and “ineffective.” In contrast, providing health insurance to our children makes sense on a number of levels. One study showed that the country could save between 8.7 and 10.1 billion dollars a year simply by providing coverage to uninsured children who are eligible for existing programs. Insuring our uninsured children essentially pays for itself. Additionally, the majority of Americans, liberal and conservative alike, believe all children should have health care coverage. And as a physician, I know that having insurance as a child reduces your chances of developing a life-long chronic disease. In fact, kids who have health insurance are more likely to succeed in school and become productive members of society.
Rather than bickering over an expensive, futile and unpopular wall, the President and Congress should set aside their differences and prioritize the health of America’s children. The best way to put “America First” is to put our children first – it’s time we gave all kids in this country health insurance.
Sonali Saluja