When I enter, “what is pediatrics?” into an image search engine, I get back dozens of stock photos with smiling physicians listening to beaming children’s hearts or looking in their ears. I love those images. They reflect the routine joy and trust that encompass many days in the life of a pediatrician.
Increasingly, though, the answer to that question doesn’t quite match the happy imagery. Pediatrics means a parent in tears because they cannot afford diapers for their infant. It means a family without stable housing, staying with a relative or friend but worried about where they will go next. It means a child missing too much school because she doesn’t have clean clothes to wear.
Pediatrics means listening to much more than what I can hear in a stethoscope: It means hearing these stories of how poverty impacts child health.
Although I can’t write my patients prescriptions to address poverty, Congress can take action right now and enact a proposal that can. For years, experts have quantified the impact the child tax credit has had on reducing child poverty and improving health outcomes; however, the full benefits of the child tax credit aren’t reaching millions of children in low-income families.
Just last week, a House committee voted to approve a bipartisan tax package that would help the child tax credit reach more families. Currently, about 19 million children receive less than the full child tax credit or none at all, because their families earn too little income to qualify. According to a new analysis, more than 80% of these children — about 16 million children — would benefit from the proposal in the first year, lifting as many as 400,000 children above the poverty line. The full House is poised to vote on the bill this month, and as the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, I urge Congress to pass this critical child poverty-reducing measure as soon as possible.
The need could not be more urgent. From 2021 to 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the child poverty rate had more than doubled — with especially large increases in poverty in Black and Latino populations. During that time, measures put in place to support families during the Covid-19 pandemic came to an end, including the expanded child tax credit, and families with children felt the greatest impact.
We need our lawmakers to act without delay if we are to reverse the alarming trends in child poverty we’ve witnessed.
Pediatricians know firsthand the inextricable link between poverty and child health. Being born into poverty increases the likelihood of a baby being born prematurely or at a low birth weight, and is directly related to increased rates of infant mortality. Children raised in poverty have higher rates of developmental delays, chronic illness, exposure to environmental hazards, and injury, among others.
When we support children with evidence-based programs and services to address their basic needs, we support their lifelong health and development, improving their well-being and decreasing risk for adverse outcomes. Simply put, this can set up future generations for success.
As a pediatrician, just as I know I can treat strep throat, a broken arm, or a vitamin deficiency, I know we can “treat” poverty. The solution is for Congress to act now to pass the bipartisan child tax credit package. We have recent evidence of how the tax credit worked for families when it was expanded in 2021. We know most low-income families used the expanded credit to cover their basic necessities, groceries, and rent. And in just one year, the number of children in poverty fell drastically.
Reducing child poverty through the child tax credit has garnered support from legislators on both sides of the aisle, and now there is a chance to work together to do what is right for children and families.
But the child tax credit alone is not enough. Low-income families also need certainty in federal nutrition programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, a program whose funding is currently at risk, as well as protection through health care coverage programs, like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Together, these are the investments that help the children and families to grow up healthy and reach their full potential, and it is critical that our lawmakers support and protect these vital programs.
All physicians have taken an oath to do everything we can to improve the health and well-being of our patients, and to ensure that we do no harm. We have seen how programs like the child tax credit can help kids and families escape the impacts of poverty. Let’s start this new year by taking commonsense action that will provide families with the support they need to keep food on the table and a roof over their head.
Ben Hoffman, M.D., FAAP, is president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.