Parents Report ‘Significant Variations’ in Quality of Care for Children, AHRQ Study Finds

Parents report "significant variations" in the quality of health care that their children receive, depending on their children's age, race, ethnicity and insurance coverage, according to a study released Tuesday by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In the study, researchers analyzed data from the AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey -- a national survey conducted in 2000 and early 2001 that asked the parents of 6,500 children ages 17 and younger about the "timeliness in which their children received needed and routine medical care" -- to determine parents' experiences with health care for their children. The study found:

• 15.8% of parents of uninsured children and 20.4% of parents of children enrolled in public health insurance programs reported that their children had a "problem receiving necessary care" at a doctor's office or a health clinic, compared with 7.9% of parents of children with private health insurance.
  
• 8% of parents of uninsured children and 11.9% of parents of children enrolled in public health insurance programs said that providers "never or only sometimes explained things carefully," compared with 3.4% of parents of children with private health insurance.
  
• 49.5% of parents of uninsured children said that providers "always spent enough time with them," compared with 54.6% of parents of children enrolled in public health insurance programs and 57.5% of parents of children with private health insurance.
  
• 41.9% uninsured children received doctors' appointments for routine care "as soon as their parents wanted," compared with 56.1% of children ages six to 17 enrolled in public health insurance programs and 64.9% of those with private health insurance.
  
• 45% of Hispanic children received doctors' appointments for routine care "as soon as their parents wanted," compared with 53.8% of African-American children and 53.7% of white children (AHRQ release).