Health Care Cost Concerns and Hardships for Families of Children with Disabilities

An article published in JAMA Network Open describes the findings of a study that looked at the health care cost concerns and challenges experienced by families of children with disabilities. The study used National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2019-2022 to quantify and analyze the hardships of families with regards to difficulty paying their child’s medical bills, concerns about paying their child’s health care bills, and the delaying or forgoing of their child’s care for financial reasons.

Results revealed that families of children with disabilities were almost twice as likely to experience any of the financial hardships evaluated than families of children without disabilities, even though insurance coverage is higher among children with disabilities. The authors conclude that insurance is inadequate for children with disabilities and call for structuring health insurance policies to ensure that this population of children have their medical care covered in a way that does not financially burden their families. Additionally, the article underscores that proposed federal cuts to Medicaid would likely increase the financial distress experienced by families of children with disabilities.