children: their future is now
TRANSCRIPT
Henry Ford Hospital Medical Journal Henry Ford Hospital Medical Journal
Volume 38 Number 2 Article 15
6-1990
Children: Their Future is Now Children: Their Future is Now
Robert H. Sweeney
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Sweeney, Robert H. (1990) "Children: Their Future is Now," Henry Ford Hospital Medical Journal : Vol. 38 : No. 2 , 142-143. Available at: https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/hfhmedjournal/vol38/iss2/15
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Children: Their Future is Now
Robert H. Sweeney'
O ur future is our children, but you wouldn't know it if you looked at the federal budget. Our nation has its priorities
skewed, and we are not investing in our future. In our form of govemment, we have in our elected officials not leaders, but political followers. The most precious right we have as American citizens is the right to petition govemment, and sensitive elected officials respond to that right; they follow the wilt of the people. When we speak to the mayor, the county commissioner, a congressman, a senator, or the President of the United States, it should be as a consequence, a culmination, of our having developed a consensus in our organization, our community, our state, and in our nation.
" I Care for Kids—And I Vote!" One of our programs in 1988 for raising awareness among all
those who must lead the way toward enlightened public policies for children entailed sending cards to political candidates. These "get well" cards pictured a donkey, an elephant, and a child who posed the compelling bipartisan question; "t love them both, but do they love me?" Listed on the inside were some rather depressing indicators of the health status of children in this country. The inscription read; "Dear Mr, Candidate, I care about kids. What are you going to do, if you're elected, to help the children of this country?"
About 50,000 of these cards, signed by the children's hospitals' communities—doctors, parents, trustees—were distributed to city council members, congressmen, and senators, as well as representatives of George Bush and Michael Dukakis before the 1988 Presidential election. While this may be considered a minor activity by some, it is a start. It put candidates on notice that Americans connected their vote to their concem for kids, and it atso educated our constituency. We plan to continue these types of nonpartisan activities to raise awareness, which is within the limits of our tax-exempt status and the tax-exempt status of our hospitals. We must impress upon the minds of massive numbers of voters the simple fact that the future of this country directly involves the health care and well-being of mothers and children.
Taking the Pulse of the Future From where we sit today, the future of this country looks
troublesome. Our young population is shrinking, while our aging population is growing. The stage is set for serious eco
nomic complications, for the elderly dependent population will soon outnumber the productive, working-age population. Today, three working Americans contribute to each social security recipient. By the year 2000, one in every three children will be a minority. The current school dropout rate for minority children is about 50%. Health-related problems, particularly drugs and adolescent pregnancy, are the main cause for this dropout rate.
Another factor concems competitiveness and the trade deficit. Tomorrow's trade deficit is today's health deficit. Consider one statistic that puts this into perspective; in 1918 America's infant mortality rate was sixth best in the world and Japan ranked 17th; today, according to the most recent data from the United Nations, the United States lags behind 21 other nations, whereas Japan is first (1,2). Today 11 % of those infants are substance addicted and emotionally scarred (3). Even if we knew which of these infants witl be our future leaders, we cannot afford to neglect any of these youngsters. We can't give up on the child who is born drug addicted. We can't afford to lose the minority child to fetal alcohol syndrome. We can't allow the low birth weight baby to begin his career with a handicap because of his mother's poverty or adolescence or ignorance. We must interdict the mother's behavior, her environment, her educational process, her housing, tf we're going to give this nation hope, we must give our children hope, challenge, and opportunity.
This does not require massive federal intervention but massive commitment of concem, interest, caring, and support. One in five children under the age of 15 is poor. One in four children under the age of 5 is poor. Although numerically minority children do not predominate among the poor, the percentage of minority children in poverty is appalling. For the world's richest nation, the condition of our children is a moral outrage for which we surely will be judged by future generations.
Currently 20% of our child population is minority. Because of increasing immigration and birth rates in minorities, the growth rate will occur principally among these minorities. By the year 2000, the total number of minority children will have increased by 25% and will constitute one-third of all our children, whereas the white non-Hispanic population of children will have increased by only two-tenths of 1 %. By the year 2030, the number of minority children will have increased by more
•President. Nalional Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Instiiutions. Inc. Alexandria, VA.
Address correspondence lo Mr. Sweeney, National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, Inc, 401 Wythe St, Alexandria, VA 22314.
142 Henry Ford Hosp Med J—Vol 38, Nos 2 & 3, 1990 Child Health—Sweeney
We can't give up on the child who is born drug addicted. We can't afford to lose the minority child to fetal alcohol syndrome. We must interdict the mother's behavior, her environment, her educational process, her housing. If we're going to give this nation hope, we must give our children hope, challenge, and opportunity.
than half and will constitute 41% of the population, and there will be 6 million fewer white, non-Hispanic children than today. Minority children are disproportionately poor and disenfranchised, and over the past decade their situation has deteriorated markedly,
A Bad Situation Getting Worse Between 1981 and 1986, the number of uninsured children
increased by 14%, primarily due to the decreasing number of children covered by private insurance. What happens when these children have limited access to health care? The answer is predictable, A 1986 Arizona study showed that children without resources received 40% less medical care than other youngsters (4), Seven million children have no routine access to health care, and too many have parents who are inadequate in their parental role and unmindful of the consequences. Immunization rates for children under age 2 years are declining while cases of mumps, measles, and pertussis are increasing; only 60% of children under age 4 years have received the complete basic series of immunizations.
Another problem is alcohol; 100,000 elementary school children get drunk at least once a week. As early as the fourth grade one of three children reports peer pressure to drink alcohol. Over one-half of last year's high school seniors have tried an illicit drug, and over one-third have tried an illicit drug other than marijuana. Other problems include cases of child abuse, which skyrocket each year, and the suicide rate for teenagers aged 15 to 19 years, which has more than doubled since 1960,
The Bottom Line These children are our future work force. Is it any wonder
that lost productivity due to alcohol and drug abuse on the job is currently estimated to be over $110 billion annually (5)? The first wave of the drug generations has entered the work force. Many children may be lost to us already. Indeed, it may be too late for an entire generation of American children—but we must make the effort now to save the next.
American Express® knows the value of investing in children's education; between 1987 and 1990 its philanthropic program spent $25 million on education projects. AT&T™ knows the value of education: it spends $6 million annually to educate 14,000 employees in basic reading and math. What will happen when 10 million fewer people enter the work force in the 1990s
than entered in the 1970s? What will happen in the year 2000 when only 15% of the new labor force witl be white males bom in the United States? We must invest in our children now—alt our children—or we will surely pay later with a declining economy.
The choice is ours. It costs about $39,000 to provide prenatal care and preventive heatth services through age 18 years, as well as enrollment in Head Start, compensatory education, summer jobs during high school, and four years of public college. The same $39,000 can also be used to support an inmate in prison for 17 months. The choice is ours.
It may be that our priorities are misplaced. There's something grossly wrong in America when we are willing to spend $300 billion to bail out savings and loan associations, but we can't find the 3 billion new dollars needed to make Medicaid work for mothers and children (6). We're playing fiscal roulette with our children's lives and our nation's future.
In Search of Leadership As Calvin Coolidge said in the 1920s, "The chief business of
the American people is business" (7). Business leaders lead; political leaders follow. When you speak out in the interest of children, you speak out in the interest of America. Men and women of great vision and courage recognize this and will insist that we invest in the future prosperity of this great country.
The parallel between the educational and health care needs of children is strong. It's not by coincidence that the educational system has become a major concem to business. Anyone who espou.ses to be an advocate of children must lead the private sector to understand that children's health status is critical to their financial future. That's what business understands because it is the truth. The business of America is, indeed, business, and with this understanding witl come the solutions. We are the people who must see that this happens—not to preserve our hospitals or our programs, not to preserve our careers or our personal goals, but to preserve this nation.
References 1. A vision for America's future. Washington, DC: Children's Defense Fund,
1989:110. 2. The health of America's children, matemal and child health data book.
Washington, DC: Children's Defense Fund, 1989:13. 3. Cha.snoff I. A first: National hospital incidence survey. National Associa
tion for Perinatal Addiction Research and Education (NAPARE), October 1988. 4. Blendon RJ, Aiken LH, Freeman H, Kirkman-Liffe BL, Murphy JW. Un
compensated care by hospitals on public insurance for the poor. Does it make a difference'? N Engl J Med 1986;314:1160-3.
5. Grad R. National commission to prevent infant mortality (manuscript accompanying videotape "Caring for Tomorrow's Children"). Washington, DC: WETA, 1989,
6. Assuring children's access to health care: Fixing the Medicaid safety net. Alexandria, VA: National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, Inc, October 1989.
7. Coolidge C. Lecture to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. January 17, 1925,
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