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Sunday, September 8th, 2013

Fighting Poverty Crucial to Tackling Child Health Crisis, Experts Say

Author:     YANA KUNICHOFF
Source:     Truthout
Publication Date:     Saturday, 07 September 2013 09:31
Link: Fighting Poverty Crucial to Tackling Child Health Crisis, Experts Say
Stephan:   What are we first in? Well, there is this: The United States has the highest incidence of physical child abuse of any First World nation. We also have the highest incarceration rate in the world. We lead the world in the number of children who have a parent in prison. And we have more children experiencing hunger than any developed nation. Oh, and our children are extraordinarily unhealthy, because so many of them come from families that are impoverished, and health care is not available to them, as this story points out. To say that we should be ashamed of ourselves as a country doesn't begin to express it adequately. To quote the BBC, 'Every five hours a child dies from abuse or neglect in the US. 'The latest government figures show an estimated 1,770 children were killed as a result of maltreatment in 2009. A recent congressional report concludes the real number could be nearer 2,500. 'In fact, America has the worst child abuse record in the industrialised world.'

The past few months have been a stressful time for Lisa Angonese. Her living situation had been increasingly tenuous. She was dealing with a crumbling apartment that had only intermittent hot water and an aggressive landlady to boot. Her young son, who struggled with mental health issues, was having trouble at school. But all of these issues paled next to the biggest issue facing Angonese – how to keep her two children healthy on her limited income. She has been unemployed since 2009, when she lost her job as a cashier, and has been striving to find work since.

‘It’s really hard,’ said Angonese, who has had several health scares herself. ‘The stress will get to you. We are limited to the kind of health care that we can get under our medical card, and I have to be constantly budgeting the amount of money that I use every month. And that can get out of hand, because I’m not a calculator, and suddenly you can find yourself without money for something we are in desperate need of.’

Angonese is the head of one of millions of low-income households in the United States struggling to make ends meet for food, housing and […]

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