Children's health insurance rates in 2014: ACA results in significant improvements

Children's health insurance rates in 2014: ACA results in significant improvements

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Author(s):
Alker, Joan, author
Chester, Alisa, author
Contributor(s):
Georgetown University. Center for Children and Families issuing body.
Publication:
Washington, D.C., : Center for Children and Families, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University, October 2015
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Insurance Coverage -- trends
Medically Uninsured -- statistics & numerical data
Child
Medicaid
United States
United States.
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
(1) The rate of uninsurance among children dropped to a historic low of 6 percent following implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014. The improvement was widespread with 25 states recording statistically significant declines in the number of uninsured children and no state reporting a significant increase. Just under 4.4 million children remain uninsured in 2014, and about half of these children live in six states--Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. (2) Some states saw much greater improvements in children's coverage than others. States with the sharpest declines in the rate of uninsured children were Nevada, Colorado, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Rhode Island. Nevada's decline was considerably larger than any other state. (3) States that extended Medicaid coverage to more uninsured adults saw nearly double the rate of decline in uninsured children as compared to states that didn't accept the ACA's Medicaid option. This is likely due to a robust "welcome mat" effect as parents enrolled their children when they signed up for newly available coverage. Even states that did not expand Medicaid appear to have experienced a welcome mat effect due to the ACA.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (21 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
101676154 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101676154