The number of uninsured kids dropped from 5.4 million to 4.5 million in the first year of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) full implementation, according to a new report.
Prepared by researchers at the Urban Institute and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the authors found an increase in the percentage of kids eligible for Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) who are now enrolled. Nationwide, 91.0 percent of kids eligible for Medicaid/CHIP were enrolled as of 2014—up from 88.7 percent in 2013, and 81.7 percent in 2008, and more than half of states have Medicaid/CHIP participation rates of more than 90 percent. The analysis shows the largest gains in Medicaid/CHIP participation were in states that expanded Medicaid for adults. The authors say that parents newly eligible for Medicaid may have also enrolled their children in Medicaid or CHIP after learning their options.
More than 60 percent of the nation’s remaining 4.5 million uninsured kids were eligible for Medicaid/CHIP in 2014. Approximately 4.9 percent of eligible children were uninsured in 2014 in states that expanded Medicaid, compared with 8.0 percent in non-expansion states.
"The importance of coverage for all kids is perhaps the single most widely accepted position in the highly politicized world of health reform," said Kathy Hempstead, who directs work on coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We should be proud of the progress that we have made in recent years, and redouble our efforts to extend these protections to the several million children who are still without them."
Percentages of uninsured kids, Medicaid/CHIP participation rates and gains in coverage among kids for all 50 states can be found here.
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To speak with a researcher about the report’s findings, please contact Frank Walsh at 504-309-5164 or [email protected].
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For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.
