"Confronting the New Politics of Child and Family Policy in the United States" is an 18-month project designed to help states, local government, and the voluntary sector as they respond to the social policy debates and changes precipitated by the 104th Congress. The project's main vehicle, aside from exploratory and analytic work, is a series of consultations and mini-conferences, each based on one or more commissioned overview papers. This document reports on a mini-conference held on April 19, 1996 that was the third of such mini-conferences. A paper by Sara Rosenbaum, "Children and the Health Care System: An Overview," provided the framework for the meeting. It begins with an overview of child health care and insurance in the United States today and the growing problems of health insurance coverage and access to health care. Options that states might adopt if they had more flexibility in using their Medicaid funds are discussed. Without an entitlement to health care, children are increasingly likely to lack insurance and access to health care. The commissioned paper is followed by discussants' remarks, an overview of programs in Rhode Island, Minnesota, and Texas, and an addendum report on the impact of welfare reform efforts on Medicaid and child health. Four appendixes provide supplemental tables, discussions of eligibility for Medicaid and reform of state medical programs, and a list of conference participants. (Contains five tables and seven appendix tables.) (SLD)