Parental job loss hurts kids' health

CINCINNATI, May 6 (UPI) -- A Cincinnati researcher says her two studies on the effect of parental job loss on child health raise grave concerns.

"The impact of not having insurance coverage in place year-round hurts children in many ways, including not being able to get the prescribed medications they need, and not having a regular source of healthcare -- and that puts their health at risk," senior researcher Gerry Fairbrother of Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Medical Center says in a statement.

Using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data based on a national sample, the first study finds children whose parents lose or change jobs are twice as likely to lose their healthcare coverage as children whose parents are without job change. In addition, children with private insurance are more than three times as likely to lose coverage.

The second study -- based on 15,447 children from the Ohio Family Health Survey -- finds children who did not have insurance in place consistently year-round are three times as likely to have unfilled prescriptions and 14 times as likely not to have a usual source of healthcare as insured children.

Both studies were presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu.