Bad Dads

From the Kaiser Family Foundation Daily Health Policy Report, 8/21/07:

Single Fathers Less Likely To Provide Health Coverage for Children, According to Study

Children of single fathers are 23% more likely than those in other family structures to be uninsured for a full year, according to a study published online by the journal Health Services Research, the Los Angeles Times reports.

For the study, Kathleen Ziol-Guest, a public health research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues analyzed data from the Urban Institute's National Survey of America's Families, which included interviews of families taken in 1997 and 2002. The study analyzed data on more than 62,000 children. Single-father households represent 6% of families with children, according to the Times.

Children in single-father households were 8.4% more likely to be uninsured in the full year preceding the survey, compared with 7.6% of those in single-mother households, according to the report. Single fathers also were 8% less likely to provide preventive care for their children. Eighty-seven percent of single fathers reported having a regular relationship with a primary care physician, compared with 90% of single mothers and 95% of two-parent families. The study also found that single mothers were 2.3% more likely than two-parent households to take their children to the doctor. Single fathers of uninsured children were more likely to believe that health coverage was unnecessary, according to the study.

According to the study, the cost of insurance cannot explain the discrepancy because single-father households often are more financially stable than single-mother households. Ziol-Guest said men are more likely to take chances with their own health, which could lead to increased risks with their children's coverage. She suggests that efforts to reach single fathers expand to more places they have contact with, such as the children's schools, instead of focusing on welfare offices and health services for low-income people. "If men aren't using such services, they'll miss the advertising," Ziol-Guest said (Dance, Los Angeles Times, 8/20).