Kids and Health Care: Preventive Medicine Conclusion

The specific health promotion topics most likely to be addressed in collaborations between managed care and public health are immunizations, prenatal care, nutrition and injury prevention.

There needs to be more of these.

Preventive medicine remains something used by wealthier -- and better-informed -- people. For example, according to one 2003 study, Californians covered by commercial indemnity health insurance are the most likely to participate in some form of health promotion program -- as compared to only 5 or 6 percent of the population insured through Medi-Cal or commercial HMOs or PPOs. This is true, even though indemnity plans usually don't cover preventive care.

An indemnity plan offers you the freedom of choice but usually requires you to pay more out-of-pocket expenses than you would with an HMO or PPO. The indemnity plan may not cover you for any routine care -- annual checkups and other preventative treatments -- either.

Some of these preventative treatments include:

• blood tests;
• prostate exams;
• genetic trait tests;
• hearing and sight loss;
• electro-cardiogram (stress tests);
• mammograms;
• Pap smears; and
• CAT scans (if you have a history of problems).

In an age of heavily-touted preventive medicine, the fact that these treatments aren't covered may seem strange.

Of course, you can get these services under an indemnity plan. You just have to be willing to absorb the related costs -- at least large parts of them -- by yourself.

As a consumer of medical services for children, you should make sure that any plan you use will cover preventive medicine -- starting with regular checkups for your kids and going as far as education programs for living with chronic or long-term conditions.

As a citizen of a developed country, you should support efficient preventive medicine programs for any-one -- and particularly any child -- using state-funded health coverage. State bureaucrats don't always like preventive medicine programs, because they're not as easy to categorize as lists of procedures...and they require the subjective judgment of doctors and other providers.

But that judgment is worth more than any bureaucracy. It's what the medical system should provide.