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The number of uninsured children in Georgia has declined thanks to federal law but may rise soon
The number of uninsured children in Georgia has declined thanks to federal law but may rise soon
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Alker, Joan, author
Osorio, Aubrianna, author - Contributor(s):
- Georgetown University. Center for Children and Families, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [Washington, DC] : Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, Center for Children and Families, October 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Medically Uninsured -- legislation & jurisprudence
Medically Uninsured -- statistics & numerical data
Child
Ethnicity
Federal Government
Race Factors
Georgia - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The state of Georgia has the fourth highest number of uninsured children with an estimated 176,000 Georgia children going without health coverage. Georgia performs poorly in comparison to its neighbors in the deep south. All of Georgia’s neighboring states--with the exception of Florida--have better child uninsured rates. Children without health insurance have worse educational and health outcomes1 and their families can be exposed to large medical bills if a child goes without insurance even for a short period of time. The majority of uninsured children in the United States are uninsured despite the fact that they are eligible for public coverage--either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (known as PeachCare in Georgia). A number of factors contribute to eligible children being uninsured. Families may not be aware that their children are eligible, paperwork could get lost in the mail during renewal, or parent’s efforts to enroll their children may be thwarted by the complex maze of red tape. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number and rate of uninsured children in Georgia (and the nation) had been going up for the first time in decades. However, a change in federal law ensured that children and others enrolled in Medicaid cannot be terminated involuntarily by any state during the federally-declared COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE)--which remains in effect at this writing. Georgia and other states were given increased federal funding to help them fulfill this obligation designed to prevent health coverage loss during the pandemic. New data from the U.S. Census Bureau from 2021 finds that the number of uninsured children has gone down nationally largely thanks to this protection for children enrolled in Medicaid. Georgia’s children have seen some of the most significant benefits in the country from this continuous coverage protection. Georgia’s child uninsured rate dropped to 6.6 percent in 2021, its lowest level in recent history. This represents a 19 percent decline from a recent peak of 8.1 percent in 2018. However, this progress is at risk when federal Medicaid continuous coverage protections lift--which could be as soon as January, 2023. At that time, regular state procedures will resume and many children will be likely to lose coverage due to red tape barriers even though most of them will still be eligible. Children are at greatest risk of this kind of administrative churn.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (3 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918523078206676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918523078206676