Significant Deterioration in Health of U.S. Children Found : Poverty: An advocacy group’s report also says the social picture for youngsters--especially the poor--has gotten worse over the last decade.

The health and social picture for U.S. children has deteriorated significantly over the last decade, according to a report released Monday by a national advocacy group for children.

Today, 12 million of them live in poverty, with the number of disadvantaged Latino children up 29.3% in the last 10 years, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. The rate for Anglo children rose 25.4% and for blacks, 6.1%.

The number of children not covered by health insurance--and, consequently, hampered in obtaining medical care--has increased, according to the organization’s 10th annual report, delivered at the Children’s Museum in Los Angeles. At the same time, immunization rates--especially among non-Angols--have decreased.

A high correlation has emerged between poverty and school failure. Poor teen-agers, according to the report, are three times more likely to drop out of school than other teen-agers.

Today’s neglect, Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman predicted, will result in a work force handicapped by poor education and health. Among the financial consequences in the coming years, according to the Children’s Defense Fund:

* Nearly five times greater costs in special education services, crime and welfare, resulting from failure to invest in preschool education programs such as Head Start.

* Three times greater health care costs for a mother and an infant for every eligible pregnant woman who cannot get into the federal WIC (Women Infants Children) food supplement program.

* $10 in medical expenses for every dollar the United States fails to spend now on vaccination against preventable illness.

Edelman cited the current measles epidemic as a direct consequence of inadequate preventive health programs for poor children, and called for increased funding.

The Bush Administration on Monday also expressed concern about measles, but proposed a different solution. In testimony in Washington before the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, Dr. William Roper, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control, said the Administration is considering withholding Medicaid and other welfare benefits from parents who fail to have their children immunized.

Medicaid--called Medi-Cal in California--is the government health insurance program for the poor. Health officials believe a low vaccination rate among preschool children is the main reason for a resurgence of measles, with rates of less than 50% in some inner-city neighborhoods. The rate leaps to about 95% nationwide once children reach kindergarten, an increase attributed to state laws requiring children to be vaccinated in order to enter school.

About 26,000 measles cases, with 97 possibly related deaths, were reported in the United States last year, compared to a yearly average of about 3,000 cases from 1981 to 1988, according to Roper.

Roper said the goal of the plan is “to help children enrolled in public assistance programs, not punish them.” But the subcommittee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), opposed it.

“The problem is clear to see: Vaccination programs are limited, clinics are inaccessible, appointments are required and waiting lists have grown,” Waxman said.

Edelman said the plight of poor children in the United States can be attributed generally to poor leadership in Washington on domestic issues. She said she would like to see President Bush demonstrate the same skill at home that he used in building the international coalitions necessary to liberate Kuwait.

“It showed us what we can do when we have the political will to do so,” Edelman said.

Citing America’s recent triumphs in the Persian Gulf War, Edelman called for equally strong leadership on the domestic front to vanquish poverty, ill health and homelessness among American children.

“Violence, drugs and poverty are destroying us from within as any enemy from without,” she said.