Quick Facts about Child and Family Coverage
1. Most children and families have health care coverage.
Children and families in the United States receive health coverage through two primary sources: employer coverage and publicly-funded programs. 1
2. A large number of children and adults remain uninsured.
As of 2007, 8.9 million children under age 19 and 36 million adults (including 11 million parents) had no health care coverage.2 The number of uninsured in the country is the function of a number of factors, including the availability and cost of employer coverage, access and eligibility for public programs, and a family's ability to pay for either form of coverage.3. Health coverage is vital to healthy development.
Children who are uninsured are more likely to go without immunizations and miss school because of untreated illness. Due to their decreased access to primary and preventive care, they are also more likely to end up seeking care in emergency rooms.3 Coverage is important to adults as well, helping them get timely medical care and improving their long-term health outcomes.44. Families are discovering it harder to find and pay for health coverage.
Rapidly rising health care costs and declines in the number of families able to secure coverage through their jobs has made it more difficult for families to afford coverage. In 2008, the cost of health insurance rose 5 percent. Since 2000, the percentage of employers that offer health coverage has dropped by 6 percentage points, with smaller firms, firms that employ more low-wage workers, and those with a greater number of part-time staff less likely to offer coverage. Employers often cite the high cost of health insurance as the reason they do not offer coverage.55. Public programs play a critical role, especially for children.
Public health insurance programs have helped stem the tide of rising uninsured rates among children; 27.1 percent of children (around 21 million children) receive health coverage through Medicaid or the State Children's Health Coverage Program (SCHIP).6 In addition, of uninsured children, close to 70 percent are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP.7 On a much smaller scale, approximately 11 percent of parents receive coverage through public programs, including Medicaid and SCHIP. 8The number of uninsured Americans fell by 1.5 million between 2006 and 2007. The number of uninsured children also decreased by almost 50,000 from 9.4 million to 8.9 million. This progress is a testament to the effectiveness of public programs, which were largely responsible for this movement.9
For More Information
View Facts and Statistics See Additional Resources- Health Insurance Coverage in America, 2007: This chartbook by the Kaiser Family Foundation provides detailed data on health coverage status.
- State Health Facts: This Web site provides facts and data on health coverage, the uninsured, Medicaid, and SCHIP- nationally and by state.
Footnotes
1. Kaiser Family Foundation, "Health Insurance Coverage in America: 2007," (October 2008). Back
2. Ibid. Back
3. P. Newacheck, J. Stoddard, D. Hughes, & M. Pearl, "Health Insurance and Access to Primary Care for Children," New England Journal of Medicine, 338: 513-519 (1998); L. Olson, S. Tang, & P. Newacheck, "Children in the United States with Discontinuous Health Insurance," New England Journal of Medicine, 353: 382-391 (2005); G. Stevens, M. Seid, & N. Halfon, "Enrolling Vulnerable, Uninsured, but Eligible Children in Public Health Insurance: Association with Health Status and Primary Care Access," Pediatrics, 117: 751-759 (2006); W. Johnson & M. Rimsza, "The Effects of Access to Pediatric Care and Insurance Coverage on Emergency Department Utilization," Pediatrics, 113: 483-487 (2004); and Institute of Medicine (2002), "Health Insurance is a Family Matter," Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Back
4. R. B. Bovbjerg & J. Hadley, "Health Policy Briefs: Why Health Insurance Is Important," The Urban Institute, (November 2007); J. Hadley, "Sicker and Poorer," Medical Research and Review, 60(2): 3S-75S (2002). Back
5. The Kaiser Family Foundation & Health Research and Educational Trust, "Employer Health Benefits: 2008 Annual Survey," (September 2008). Back
6. op. cit. (1) Back
7. Analysis of March 2005 Current Population Survey using July 2004 state eligibility rules by L. Dubay, Urban Institute. Back
8. op. cit. (1) Back
9. C. DeNavas-Walt, B. Proctor, & J. Smith, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007," U.S. Census Bureau (August 2008); and J. Holahan & A. Cook, "The Decline in the Uninsured in 2007: Why Did it Happen and Can it Last?," Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (October 2008). Back