Survey study reveals elevated chronic illness and uninsurance among children in informal and foster care, highlighting critical gaps in health coverage outside formal court oversight.
.Children living away from birth families in informal care fall outside court oversight, where health needs may go unmet. Using pooled 2018–2020 National Survey of Children’s Health data on 102,740 children, we compared chronic health conditions and insurance coverage across care types. Children in informal non-kin and formal foster care had similarly elevated odds of chronic conditions (OR = 1.80 and OR = 1.79, p < .05) relative to birth homes. Young children in informal non-kin care were four times as likely to be uninsured (OR = 4.3, p < .001). Policy should extend healthcare access to these children.
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Helton et al. (2026) studied this question.
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