By Alison A. Galbraith and Aaron E. Carroll, JAMA Pediatrics, October 5, 2020

When elections focus on health policy, children are too often ignored. This is as true during the present election cycle as any other. Because children do not vote, are disproportionately poor and disenfranchised, and usually incur lower health care costs than older adults, their health issues are given less attention in public policy debates. Very few Democratic Congressional campaign websites discuss pediatric health policies; even fewer Republican ones do.

It is troubling that candidates would neglect issues directly affecting the current and future health and well-being of more than 73 million Americans—more than one-fifth of the US population. Worse, child health can be indirectly impacted by adult-focused policies, but this issue is often considered after the fact. While we may not be able to directly change how candidates focus on these issues, we can offer them the evidence they need to do so.

To call attention to child health as an important policy issue and provide data to inform the decision-making of voters and policy makers, JAMA Pediatrics issued a Call for Papers on Election-Year Policies and Children’s Health last year. The resulting submissions, highlighted herein, focus on a range of significant issues. Some articles point out underrecognized or unaddressed topics in child health and help characterize the problem and the populations affected, providing visibility and evidence to encourage policy makers to take action. Other studies evaluate the impact of existing policies to examine which may be beneficial and which may not, providing evidence to strengthen the former and reconsider the latter.

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