Health Care Financing

In 2010, approximately 7.3 million U.S. children under 18 years of age had no health insurance coverage, representing 9.8 percent of the population. This was not statistically different from the previous year (9.7 percent). More than one-third of children were insured through public programs¹ such as Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and military health insurance (37.9 percent), and 59.6 percent were covered by private insurance.

Children's insurance status varies by race and ethnicity. In 2010, 73.1 percent and 68.6 percent of non-Hispanic White and Asian children, respectively, had private coverage, while the same was true for only 52.7 percent of non- Hispanic Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander children, 42.6 percent of non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native children, 41.8 percent of non-Hispanic Black children, and 37.7 percent of Hispanic children. Over half of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic children were publicly insured (56.3 percent and 51.7 percent, respectively) followed by 49.8 percent of non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native children.

As family income increases, private health insurance coverage among children rises and the proportions of children with public coverage and no coverage decrease. In 2010, children living in households with incomes below 100 percent of the U.S. Census Bureau's poverty threshold ($22,314 for a family of four in 2010) were most likely to have public coverage (73.7 percent) or to be uninsured (15.4 percent); a similar proportion of children living in near-poor households (between 100-199 percent of the poverty threshold) were also uninsured (14.1 percent). Children with family incomes of 400 percent or more of the poverty threshold were most likely to have private coverage (92.2 percent), and least likely to have public coverage (10.5 percent) or to be uninsured (3.5 percent).

In 2009, the Children's Health Insurance Program was reauthorized and states were given incentives to provide coverage to additional children. Although designed to cover children with family incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, many States have expanded eligibility to children with higher family incomes.

1 Public or Government health insurance includes federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and military health care; the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and individual state health plans

This image is described in the Data section.

This image is described in the Data section.