CISWH Project Resources

In every issue of Catalyst Center Quarterly, we tackle a current topic related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN). Below is a compilation of several questions that we’ve been asked by stakeholders regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on December 16, 2011, and its possible impact on CYSHCN.

Families face significant challenges in caring for their CSHCN. For many families, one of these challenges is the economic impact of inadequate health care coverage. Families must make hard choices about how to spend limited salaries and then make substantial sacrifices in other domains to ensure adequate care for their children. But for other families, the resources to pay for care are simply not there. Children and youths who are uninsured or whose insurance does not pay for critical components of care may experience adverse outcomes in relation to health, development, and capacity to function because their families just cannot afford to pay for vitally needed care.

This resource offers a descriptive summary of programs developed to provide services children with intellectual and developmental disabilities need to maximize quality of life.

In this article, we first provide information about CSHCN, insurance status, and associated disparities. We then discuss practice and policy initiatives that social workers could pursue to reduce these disparities, including initiatives prompted by the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Action aimed at ensuring access to health coverage and care for vulnerable children and their families is a critical component of the mission of the social work profession; social workers are encouraged to take action to promote social and economic justice for CSHCN and their families.

This is the third webinar in a five-webinar series about the Catalyst Center’s technical assistance tool Public Insurance Programs and Children with Special Health Care Needs: A Tutorial on the Basics of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).