Issues such as the breakdown of the family and loss of extended family relationships, population mobility, cultural and language barriers, disparities in families' incomes, and deteriorating neighborhood and community structures have all affected our children. Additional challenges have included the links between poverty and diminished access to health care, between prenatal risks and low birthweight and prematurity, and between substandard housing and health conditions such as lead poisoning and asthma. Technology will not solve all these problems, nor will molecular biology and genetic engineering. New approaches focused on public health are required. Isolation and violence don't respond to new medications.
Immunizations work only if administered.
Low-income and minority populations need to be included in universal access to health care. The health and education communities need to engage families to ensure that all children, including children with special health care needs, have the opportunity to grow and develop into productive citizens. Partnerships between families and the health and education communities are beginning to develop. Pediatricians and other child health professionals are working with parents and community groups not only to ensure that children have financial access to health care, but also to design the content of that care so that it targets serious clinical problems as well as the new morbidities. With this program a federal and state government reality, financial access to health care for a growing number of American children is at hand.