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Number of uninsured children in US increased by 425,000 in 2018

The number of uninsured children in the U.S. has climbed for the second year in a row, with 425,000 more children losing their healthcare coverage in 2018 compared to 2017.

The U.S. Census Bureau's annual health insurance coverage report, released Sept. 10, showed that the uninsured rate for children under the age of 19 increased from 5% in 2017 to 5.5% in 2018. The number of uninsured children in 2018 totaled about 4.3 million, according to the bureau's data.

The increase was driven by a drop in coverage from public programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. The number of children covered by private insurance remained relatively flat, while public coverage dropped by 1.3 percentage points.

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Medicaid is the joint federal and state health insurance program that mainly covers people with low incomes, a wide population including children and the elderly. CHIP is a program within Medicaid that provides health insurance to children whose families have income levels too high to qualify for Medicaid and may not be able to afford private insurance.

'Our worst fears'

Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families, said in a Sept. 10 statement that the data confirms "our worst fears," adding that the strong economy is not accounting for the coverage loss.

"This serious erosion of child health coverage is due in large part to the Trump administration's actions that have made health coverage harder to access and have deterred families from enrolling their eligible children in Medicaid and CHIP," Alker said.

Children's health and medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners echoed a similar point in a Sept. 10 joint statement.

"The data is especially alarming considering the relatively healthy economy and low unemployment rate, which counters claims that children are leaving public coverage to instead be covered by private insurance," the groups said.

Both Alker and the group's statement stressed the importance of ensuring that children have some form of health insurance.

Alker predicted in May that the number of uninsured children in 2018 would rise when Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families released a study showing that 828,129 fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP in 2018, the largest enrollment drop since at least 2000.

Differences across demographics

The coverage declines impact certain demographics more than others. For example, the child uninsured rate in the South increased from 6.5% in 2017 to 7.7% in 2018, while other regions "did not statistically change," according to the bureau's report. The child uninsured rate in states that have not expanded Medicaid increased from 7% in 2017 to 7.9% in 2018. The child uninsured rate in expansion states increased from 3.7% in 2017 to 3.9% in 2018.

The report showed that children who are Hispanic were more likely to be uninsured than children from other races or non-Hispanic origin groups. The uninsured rate for Hispanic children in 2018 was 8.7%, an increase of 1%. The uninsured rate for children who are non-Hispanic whites totaled 4.2% in 2018, an increase of .5 percentage points.

Healthcare experts have said that anti-immigration policies such as the Trump administration's "public charge" policy are preventing some immigrant families from accessing healthcare services and signing up for programs like Medicaid.