Health and Child Development

Good health is fundamental to a child’s overall development—and ensuring that kids are born healthy is the first step toward improving their life chances.

Poor health, on the other hand, affects critical aspects of a child’s life, including school readiness and attendance. Exposure to violence, family stress, inadequate housing, poor nutrition, a lack of preventative care and growing up in poverty — among other factors — can put a child’s health at risk and exact lasting consequences.

If children and families have health care, they are more likely to get the care they need and get it when they need it. Nationwide, only 5% of kids lack health insurance, and — over the last three decades — the share of children without health insurance has shrunk by 62%.