e practitioners and administrators, as well as to the school system, business, and government. Children who are not provided with appropriate health care at an early age suffer from more ailments, from more serious ailments, and from the secondary effects of those diseases and disorders. Ultimately, this results in more suffering for the children and greater costs to the whole society, financially, ethically, and institutionally. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 21 percent of those poor children without health insurance had no regular source of health care, while only 4 percent of poor children with health insurance had no regular source. Along with the decline in insurance coverage in the 1990s, there has been a corresponding decline in health status among poor children The percentage of poor children with good or excellent health decreased, and among poor children aged zero to four years, this decrease was even greater. Poor children are now in worse general he
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