Human Services News

Commonwealth Fund:

Incremental reform will not solve the problems plaguing the U.S. child heath system, contend UCLA researchers in a new Commonwealth Fund-supported study.

The current system---fragmented, underperforming, and fraught with inefficiencies---will require bold, long-term, transformative changes to provide children with a healthy future, they say.

In "Transforming the U.S. Child Health System" (Health Affairs, March/April 2007), Neal Halfon, M.D., and colleagues call for broad reforms to create a more comprehensive approach to optimizing children's health and health care.

Specifically, they recommend: establishing a federal agency to consolidate existing funding and planning for children's health initiatives, improving early childhood services and systems, using health information technology to coordinate care among health care providers, and organizing local child health development systems to manage care delivery.

A Transformation Framework While the U.S. health system delivers some of the finest medical care in the world, the persistent and growing gaps in access to services and the quality of care are well documented.

The authors propose replacing the current model of child health---highlighted by an episodic, biomedical, diagnose-and-treat model---with "a more comprehensive and holistic approach to optimizing health development."

At its core, the model would focus on prevention, health promotion, and the development of health potential.

Financing reform would necessitate better integration of funding streams to support integrated services, as well as fund population health initiatives.