Addressing the Health Needs of Children in the Child Welfare System: Recommendations to Improve Insurance Coverage, Access to Health Services, Screening, Prevention, Treatment, and Data Collection

September 26, 2008 Each year, over 5 million children come into contact with the child welfare system, including 800,000 children in foster care. These children have a variety of unique health care needs and suffer from a higher incidence of physical and mental illness than children in the general population. However, the health care and child welfare systems frequently fail to meet their needs. This policy brief describes areas of need and proposes recommendations to improve insurance coverage, access to health services, screening, prevention, treatment, and data collection for these children . . .