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Number of uninsured children stabilized and improved slightly during the pandemic
Number of uninsured children stabilized and improved slightly during the pandemic
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Alker, Joan, author
Osorio, Aubrianna, author
Park, Edwin, 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, December 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- COVID-19
Insurance Coverage -- statistics & numerical data
Medically Uninsured -- statistics & numerical data
Child
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The number of uninsured children declined during the COVID-19 pandemic largely due to federal law which has protected access to health care for Medicaid beneficiaries by requiring states to keep them enrolled during the federally declared COVID-19 public health emergency in exchange for enhanced federal funding. This reverses the trend from 2016 to 2019 when the number of uninsured children had been going up. Medicaid protections helped ensure coverage for children whose families lost their employer-sponsored coverage during the early period of the pandemic. The continuous coverage protection also prevented eligible children from losing coverage due to “procedural reasons,” which is a common occurrence for children under normal operating procedures in many states. Procedural losses occur when eligible children fall off the program because their coverage isn’t renewed due to administrative barriers. Twelve states saw significant declines in their rate and/or number of uninsured children with Oklahoma, Connecticut, Indiana, Colorado and Texas seeing the largest improvements. Despite the improvement, Texas continues to rank last in the country with the highest rate (11.8 percent) and number (930,000) of uninsured children. Idaho, Maryland and New York went in the wrong direction with Idaho seeing the largest jump in the number of uninsured children--an increase of 46 percent. Children in low-wage working families with annual incomes between $30,305 and $54,900 (for a family of three) saw the biggest reductions in their uninsured rates. These coverage gains are at risk when the Medicaid continuous coverage protection lifts at the end of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency. According to a separate analysis conducted by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers, an estimated 6.7 million children are at risk of losing coverage and the child uninsured rate could more than double if states do not do a good job of keeping eligible children enrolled when the continuous coverage protection ends. Most of the children losing coverage will remain eligible but their coverage will be dropped due to procedural rather than eligibility reasons. As of this writing, the public health emergency is expected to remain in place until at least April 11, 2023.
- 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 (14 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918523081706676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918523081706676