Jan. 16, 2019
The progress made insuring children over the last decade has not only halted, but reversed course, according to a report released in November by the Georgetown University Policy Institute, Center for Children and Families.
Here are the key findings from the report:
• For the first time in nearly a decade, the number of uninsured children in the U.S. increased. Recently released data shows an estimated 276,000 more children were uninsured in 2017 than in 2016. No state (except for the District of Columbia) experienced a significant decline in the number of uninsured children in 2017.
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• Three-quarters of the children who lost coverage between 2016 and 2017 live in states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage to parents and other low-income adults. The uninsured rates for children increased at almost triple the rate in non-expansion states than in states that have expanded Medicaid.
• The share of children without health insurance nationally increased from 4.7 percent in 2016 to 5 percent in 2017. Nine states experienced statistically significant increases in their rate of uninsured children (SD, UT, TX, GA, SC, FL, OH, TN, MA).
• Texas has the largest share of children without health coverage with more than one in five uninsured children in the U.S. residing in the state.
• States with larger American Indian/Alaska Native populations tend to have higher uninsured rates for children than the national average.
