When we think of the growing burden of paying for health care,
we often think of older Americans struggling to pay for
medicines and procedures that can become more prevalent as we
age. But new data from the National Center for Health Statistics
finds that kids who are 17 and under are the most likely of any
age group they studied to be living in a family that has
recently had trouble affording their medical bills. The data,
released Wednesday by the government researchers, found that
about 24 percent of children ages 17 and under are living in a
family that has had trouble paying their medical bills in the
past year. By contrast, just about 10 percent of people who are
65 to 74 years old were living in a family that had had problems
paying medical bills in the past year. Experts say we shouldn’t
take the data to mean that kids aren’t getting the health care
they need. In fact, most kids have some sort of health
insurance. An analysis of insurance coverage for children,
released by the Carsey Institute last f