Fewer Children Had Health Insurance In 2018 Than Year Before

Moms.com

By Kelli Catana

Published Sep 16, 2019

In new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, it found that approximately 4.3 million children had no health insurance coverage in 2018.

Health Care is a very hot topic in the United States right now, especially as part of recent leader debates. Yet it seems that for all the discussion around health care the number of people, especially children, who are insured is actually dropping. Despite average household incomes staying relatively the same between 2017 and 2018, the number of children insured has dropped by almost a half million.

In new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, it found that approximately 4.3 million children had no health insurance coverage in 2018. That number is up by almost 425,000 from 2017.

The report points out that children typically have health coverage either through a parent’s health insurance plan or through government programs but thanks to a “decline in public coverage” approximately 5.5% of children found themselves uninsured in 2018. The Census Bureau blames the decrease in public programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan for the drop in those rates

"It's a very smart investment to make sure that kids get Medicaid when they need it," Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, told NPR. "And that's exactly the opposite of what's happening today."

The data showed that age, geography and if the child lived in a state with expanded Medicaid all affected their rates of insurance. "The data released today by the Census Bureau confirmed our worst fears," Alker added. "We know from a lot of research that children who have Medicaid as opposed to those who are uninsured are more likely to succeed in school and more likely to graduate from college. They also have better health as adults and higher earnings, which means they're less likely to rely on government assistance as adults."

Alker also told NPR that current government changes to programs, like cutbacks to expand Medicaid and the fear many immigrant families have about signing up for government programs has contributed to the lack of children being insured. In fact, children under the age of 6 showed the biggest decrease in being insured, dropping from 40% in 2017 to just 38% in 2018.

"That's extremely problematic," Alker says. "A child's brain develops very rapidly in the earliest years of life, and this really builds a foundation for future success in life."