1984 Update on the World Economic Crisis and the Children: A United States Case Study

Abstract

A previously published report by these authors on the impact in the United States of recession on children's health emphasized four points: 1) available monitoring systems are not adequate for reporting on the health of children in a timely fashion; 2) the monitoring of maternal and child health must emphasize data on population subgroups, i.e., minorities, the poor and those hardest hit by recession; 3) the health of poor children is adversely affected and their numbers dramatically increased during the recession of 1981–82; and 4) comparisons between the recession of 1974–75 and that of 1981–82 suggest that expansion of health services and social support systems during the recession of 1974–75 had a cushioning effect that protected the health of children, while the curtailment of many of these programs during the 1981–82 recession is associated with adverse health trends, especially among the most vulnerable population subgroups.

Data on these issues are appreciably better now than they were nine months ago, thus further validating the points made above. As with the previous report, officially released current data are abundant for economic indicators (even for early 1984), but are sparse for health status indicators. The previous report also observed that the health status of children is influenced by interdependent and interlocking factors that include economic well-being and access to health services and social supports. A new analysis attempts to unlock those relationships and measure the impact of lost welfare benefits, implemented as a result of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 (OBRA), and the separate impact of the serious recession of 1981–82. That analysis shows the poverty rate for children increased by 7.6 percentage points between 1981 and 1982. Approximately 60 percent of the increase is attributable to the recession and 40 percent to social policy changes effected after 1981.