Health insurance for all.
It's a pleasure to report that when school nurses in a part of western Massachusetts were asked to identify barriers to healthcare for children, they did not mention health insurance. This was not always the case. Thanks to an innovative collaboration between a community hospital and a regional school district, almost all school children in the three-town area have health insurance. Fewer children are without healthcare, allowing them access to healthcare more freely and minimizing acute and primary care in the local emergency department, which is typically an outcome for the uninsured.
Cormier
Linda F
LF
Fairview Hospital, Great Barrington, MA, USA.
Thomson
Cheryl
C
D002648:Child; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D008404:Massachusetts; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012573:School Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019472:Universal Health Insurance