WCCF’s latest WisKids Count Issue Brief, “Building on our Strength: Achieving Equity in Health Outcomes for Children and Families in Wisconsin,” takes on the issue of health disparities in Wisconsin based on race and ethnicity. Largely rooted in social and community factors, Wisconsin’s gap is one of the most egregious in the country. “Building on our Strength” notes disturbing figures in several health-related areas, including these:

–The 2008 infant mortality rate for Black infants (13.8 per 1,000 live births) was more than twice as high as the rate for White infants.
–The rate of Black children born at low birth-weight was more than twice the rate for non-Hispanic White children in 2007.
–African American and Hispanic teenagers are three times as likely to give birth compared to the state average for all teens.

The brief points to several underlying causes for these health outcome disparities. One of the most important factors at play is poverty, which affects children’s health in a variety of ways. In 2007, children of color in Wisconsin were nearly five times as likely as White children to be living in poverty. Latino children were twice as likely as White children to be poor.

While the state has made great strides toward covering all children and families with health insurance, more needs to be done to eliminate the social determinants of poor health such as inadequate housing, neighborhood violence, limited access to affordable fresh produce and, lack of quality health care including dental and mental health. To that end, we make several recommendations, including:

–Fill gaps in BadgerCare Plus that affect families who are above 150 percent of poverty but unable to afford the insurance offered by their employer.
–Maintain strong BadgerCare Plus outreach and continue to improve enrollment and renewal processes.
–Promote health care reform at the federal level that would eliminate the 5-year Medicaid waiting period for legal immigrants and genuinely make coverage more affordable for everybody.
–Provide additional resources for loans to assist landlords and homeowners with lead abatement efforts.

Building on our Strength is available online at https://kidsforward.org/pdf/health_outcomes_wiskids_Jan-2010.pdf. A wide range of other data on child well-being in Wisconsin is available in WCCF’s 2009-10 WisKids Count Data Book, “Jobs Count.”