Your Family: Jul. 19, 1999

GOOD NEWS FOR KIDS The health of America’s children is improving. Death rates are down for infants, adolescents and other children, according to a study released last week by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Teen smoking is down, as are teen crime and births to minors. However, despite a decade of prosperity, a fifth of U.S. children live in poverty–the same proportion as in 1980.

IT’S JUST A SCRATCH While young people ages 11 to 21 compose 15% of the U.S. population, they make up only 9% of those who visit doctors, the journal Pediatrics reported last week. The reason is not so much good health or poverty, but rather that young people consider it “uncool” to seek medical attention. Yearly checkups are essential so physicians can find and treat chronic conditions. And since the teen suicide rate has more than doubled in the past 20 years, an appointment also gives doctors a chance to screen for depression.

EASING ELDERCARE President Clinton in January proposed a $1,000 annual tax break for most patients or their families who pay for long-term care at home or in institutions like nursing homes. Not to be outdone, Republicans in Congress last week pitched further tax relief, worth up to $2,750 a year, for those who tend to aged relatives at home or buy insurance for long-term care. Nursing homes can cost more than $50,000 a year. Republicans hope that by encouraging less expensive home care and the purchase of private insurance, they can cut government expenditures for eldercare.

–By Daniel S. Levy