Health Care for U.S. Kids Falls Short

A new study reveals surprising statistics concerning the quality of medical care for children. The shocker: Most of those studied had insurance

More evidence that the U.S. health-care system is far from stellar: It seems that even white, middle-class, well-insured children get poor quality health care more often than not. A large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that American children receive recommended health-care procedures only 46% of the time when they see a doctor. In fact, children get even worse care than adults, who receive appropriate care about half the time, according to a similar survey published in 2003.

"Taken together, these studies show that no one, anywhere, is immune from poor quality of care [in the U.S.]," says lead researcher Rita Mangione-Smith of Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute.

The researchers blamed much of the care deficit on insurers, whom they said pressure doctors to spend only 10 minutes on a regular checkup, leaving them little time to run all the recommended tests. In addition, pediatricians are trained to deal with acute illnesses rather than preventive care because their residential training is all in hospitals, where they don't do regular checkups, just serious illnesses. "Until now, most people assumed that quality was not a problem for children," says Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director of Rand Health and a co-author of the study. "This new study tells us that's not true."