Elsevier

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 45, Issue 3, September 2009, Pages 310-315
Journal of Adolescent Health

Position paper
Health Care Reform and Adolescents—An Agenda for the Lifespan: A Position Paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.06.001Get rights and content

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Principles for Health Care Reform in the Interest of Adolescents

Drawing from other position papers previously published by the Society for Adolescent Medicine and other recently published literature, the Society for Adolescent Medicine offers the following principles as essential to ensure that health care reform meets the needs of adolescents and young adults, ages 10 to 25 [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22].

1. Make health care financially accessible for adolescents and young adults

Financial access must be assured both through health insurance coverage that reaches all adolescents and young adults and through publicly funded programs that provide special services to meet adolescents' needs or reach special populations of young people.

Conclusions

To meet the needs of adolescents and young adults, any health care reform initiative should make health care financially accessible for all adolescents and young adults, provide for a comprehensive array of services to meet adolescents' specific needs, support mechanisms to train a broad range of health care professionals in the needs of adolescents, and to compensate them fairly to work in diverse settings, protect the confidentiality of adolescents' health care communications and records, and

Author Disclosures

Abigail English, J.D., has a GlaxoSmithKlein research grant, and a Merck, Inc. honorarium for expert meeting participation. Lawrence J. D'Angelo is a member of the speaker's bureau of sanofi pasteur.

Society for Adolescent Medicine

The Society for Adolescent Medicine (SAM) is a multidisciplinary organization committed to improving the physical and psychosocial health and well-being of all adolescents (ages 10–25) through advocacy, clinical care, health promotion, health service delivery, professional development, and research. Recognizing that health is more than the absence of disease, SAM promotes positive youth development, illness prevention, achievement of individual potential and a sense of physical, mental, and

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