A galvanizing event to promote improving health insurance.

Abstract

For almost all Americans, having affordable access to quality health care in the United States requires health insurance. Inadequate insurance is more common among children with disabilities and complex health conditions than other children. For children, insurance is considered adequate if the benefits must usually or always meet the child's needs and usually or always allow the child to see needed providers and the family reports no out-of-pocket expenses or out-of-pocket expenses deemed usually or always reasonable. After the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was killed in front of a Manhattan hotel on his way to his annual investor conference in December 2024, there was an outpouring of stories on social media about how people felt their loved ones were harmed by health insurance companies denying care that their doctors recommended. While murder as a form of vigilante justice should not be condoned, this event highlighted how angry Americans are at health insurance companies. Pediatric rehabilitation medicine physicians are no strangers to the frustrations of insurance denials for their patients and feel the strain of having to work through prior authorizations and peer-to-peers just to get their patients what they deem important for their health and functioning. The national data confirms what pediatric rehabilitation medicine physicians knew from collective experience - millions of children with more complex health care needs have inadequate insurance.