Health care for children includes well child care, episodic illness care, specialty care, oral health care, developmental care, and mental health care. While access to care is often operationally defined by the health insurance policies held by parents, there are a number of other variables that affect access, including geography, physical and temporal factors, the availability of providers within the community, the cultural competency of providers, philosophical similarities and differences between people seeking health care and providers, and the ability to pay for care. This discussion focuses on the types of care needed by children in order to achieve optimal health and the variables affecting access.

All children should receive health care in the context of a medical or health care home, a model of delivering ...