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Loading...What Does Affordable Health Care Have To Do With Education?
Health and education go hand-in-hand, as any teacher can tell you.
My fifth grade student Annie, who was absent due to illness for over a third of the school year, ended up losing so much ground that she had to repeat the year.
Students who suffer from chronic illness fall behind in school, while those students in school who are hungry or malnourished are unlikely to be able to focus on their studies. The ability to get healthcare is a huge deal for those students living in poverty – which means 16.4 million children, or 22 percent of all children, according to the 2010 Census. That’s a lot of children.
So how does today’s Supreme Court 5-4 decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act affect schools?
Since research shows health-care disparities help drive achievement gaps among students, it could mean a lot. Last year, public health experts argued in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease that health and education are “integrally linked” and educators and health officials should form stronger partnerships to improve high school graduation rates.
From Education Week:
“The reasons students drop out of school are complex, and health can be integrally related to many of these reasons, including barriers to learning such as hunger and poor nutrition and even fear for safety at school,” wrote authors led by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher Diane Allensworth. “Health problems contribute to absenteeism and, in turn, absenteeism as well as unintended pregnancy and delinquency are associated with dropping out of school.”
A 2010 study by Teachers College at Columbia University found medical problems like vision disabilities and asthma disproportionately affect poor and minority children, who are also less likely to have health insurance. The study found that health-related problems play a major role in limiting the motivation and ability to learn of urban minority youth, and interventions to address those problems can improve educational as well as health outcomes. Unsurprisingly, health disparities play a huge role in the educational achievement gap that plagues urban minority youth.
Finally, a study by the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) asked the question, “Can Health Insurance Reduce School Absenteeism?” The authors concluded that SCHIP has had a positive and significant effect on state average daily attendance rates: school absenteeism rates dropped as children’s health insurance rates rose under the program. With numerous studies showing that kids who graduate from high school do better overall in life than those who don’t, it’s clear that having insurance makes a huge difference.
And with 7,000 U.S. high school students dropping out every school day, the implications are enormous.
That’s why many of us teachers are cheering today, at the Supreme Court’s momentous decision to uphold President Obama’s Health Care Law, and especially the individual mandate.
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Read more: aca, affordable health care, health insurance mandate, ObamaCare, president obama, scotus, SCOTUS ACA
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Interesting article! Thanks!
There's nothing "free" about this healthcare. This plan is based on what is set up in Massachusetts, so we already have a taste of it. It's called a "tax" by the Supreme Court for a reason-- everyone has to buy health insurance. Only those below poverty level get government help. The SJC barred the federal gov't from penalizing states who don't want to expand medicare, too, which was likely to happen. The hoopla involves what this insurance must cover (ie contraceptives and abortifants) and the expense of providing for the poor populations. By the way, Massachusetts has seen a dramatic rise in costs every year since its implementation, too.
Yeah forget Free Helthcare and Education for all, let's spend another $3.5 Trillion on war, bomb Iran.
I don't know maybe like EVERYTHING
Just think -- an entire generation will grow up thinking they deserve to see a doctor when they're sick or hurt. If we're not careful, the families of the sick won't have to decide between buying food and life-saving medicine, meaning less children will go to school hungry -- no matter how much we cut their food stamps. They're making it harder for us to be Republicans every day -- wanting to guarantee the people of our nation basic food and medical care! The nerve! These damn poor people whose jobs we and our great leader Romney outsourced and offshored so we could steal their pension money sure are getting spoiled and uppity about it. Bring back our plantations! That's how you create a REAL permanent underclass that knows its place.
I absolutly agree with this. I was sick all throught my school years and whle I was absent quite a bit, without my parents health insurance I very likely would've died before I reched the sixth grade.
thoughtful article
In the uk we take health care for granted .Everyone is entitled to free healthcare. The money comes out of our taxes.
Sandy E - Off your meds? Sounds like you have been listening to Mittens on FAUX News. Or are you a dittohead? Right now it is the insurance companies that dictate your healthcare. Someone sitting at a desk who has very little medical knowledge is deciding whether you need that operation, treatment, meds, etc. And for every dollar in premiums you pay about 80 cents is spent on care. Then you have a deductible to meet. And if the insurance company for some reasons questions a claim they can revoke the claim and take the money away from the facility and doctor. That leaves you high and dry responsible for the entire bill.
This is also the same plan Mittens put forth in Mass. when he was governor.
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