Abstract

This chapter argues that children often do not receive even the basic health care that adults in similar ircumstance enjoy. Competition for limited health care resources is likely to intensify in the face of health care reform. The chapter challenges the practice of rationing medical services on the basis of age that is disadvantageous to children, but shows that arguments employed to justify caring for the health of needy older citizens, such as sympathy and empathy for their plight, best interest protection, social utility and efficiency, and equal opportunity, apply similarly to needy children. It advances a modest “fair share” proposal that, as a prima facie duty, publicly funded health care goods, services, and benefits be provided for children on at least as favorable a basis as to adults. In the United States, Medicare is available to adults once they reach age 65; based on their age children should also be eligible for a (different) array of federal- or state-supported programs as well as heavily subsidized additional health insurance. The chapter extends its fair-share approach to the issue of children’s participation as research subjects.