- Study shows Medicaid kids are denied medical care, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), June 16, 2011, USA Today: “Children on public insurance are being denied treatment by doctors at much higher rates than those with private coverage, according to an undercover study that had researchers pose as parents of sick kids seeking an appointment with a specialist. Snubbed even by specialists whose offices supposedly accept public insurance patients, these kids also had to wait much longer to see a doctor. Low Medicaid reimbursements are the likely reason, the study authors said. The study was done in Cook County, Ill., the nation’s second-most populous county which includes Chicago, but the researchers and others say the results likely reflect practices around the country…”
- Penn study finds doctors delaying or rejecting specialty care for publicly insured children, By Marie McCullough, June 16, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A University of Pennsylvania study in which callers posed as mothers seeking pediatric specialty care found that two-thirds of publicly insured children were refused a doctor’s appointment, compared with only 11 percent of privately insured children. Even the low-income children who were not rejected had to wait an average of 42 days for appointments for urgent conditions such as diabetes, seizures, asthma, or a bone fracture – 22 days longer on average than children with private insurance…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty