Hoping everyone has a happy and safe Halloween this festive day.  Not to put a damper on the fun, but came across a statistic this morning that was much more frightening than Halloween.  For personal health insurance in Michigan, 1 in 20 children have no health insurance at all.

Halloween is a high time for ER visits, and according to a study found in The Journal of Pediatrics, it actually tops the list as the busiest day for child visits.  Most of the injuries are due to pumpkin carving accidents, but there are also car accidents with children running around in the dark, as well as upset stomachs from unusually large candy consumption.  Knowing that so many kids are without health insurance is disturbing and begs the question of how these visits ultimately get paid for?

The state and federal government will absorb some of the costs of child health care, but there needs to be better plans in place to ensure our children have appropriate coverage so they are receiving the preventative care they need and deserve in addition to emergency care.  In Michigan, 127,000 uninsured children under 18 do not have to go without health insurance.  According to the article “What’s Frightening This Halloween? Michigan Children Without Health Insurance” by Sara on the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians website, most of these uninsured children are eligible for the state’s inexpensive, and often times free health insurance plans.

Healthy Kids and MIChild are quality health insurance plans for kids and too many parents aren’t even aware these plans exist.  Getting the word out, and educating parents on these plans is the first step in making sure more children have health insurance and will meet no struggles in the ER if they end up there this Halloween season.

Written by Sam Tabes

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/smartshopper78