Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) have a wide range of health care needs, including physical, mental and behavioral health conditions, and levels of limitations that require health and related services beyond that required by children generally. It is important that this population has timely access to care because they can experience negative health and social-emotional outcomes due to delayed or forgone care. In this issue brief, we used data from the 2021 and 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health to compare demographic and health characteristics between CYSHCN and non-CYSHCN. We also compare differences with accessing care and quality of care, insurance adequacy, and transition planning between Medicaid-covered CYSHCN, CYSHCN covered by private insurance, CYSHCN covered by a combination of the two, and those who are uninsured.
There were several differences in accessing health care and other health-related services, insurance adequacy, and out-of-pocket costs across all insurance types, but many similarities in experiences with transition planning. Overall, across all insurance types, more than 90 percent of CYSHCN reported being able to have a medical visit in the past 12 months; however, there were some reported differences in the type of care CYSHCN received. Additionally, CYSHCN had different experiences with their insurance coverage meeting their needs across all insurance types. Lastly, there were several similarities in transition planning between insurance types but some differences with transitioning to adult insurance coverage.
