Public News Service

By: Andrea Sears

According to the new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, the rates of insured children nationwide reached a historical high of 95%. New York contributed to this historical rate, as between 2013 and 2015, it reduced the rate of uninsured children by 67,000!

Kate Breslin, president and CEO of Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, attributed their progress of achieving 97.5% insured children to the Medicaid expansion and CHIP under the Affordable Care Act.

Joan Alker, the executive director of CCF and co-author of the report, mentioned that Native American and Hispanic children are the ones with the highest uninsured children – and that it is very important to assess these populations.

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New York state reduced the number of uninsured children by almost 40 percent in two years, the fifth largest decline in uninsured children in the nation, according to a report released today by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

According to Joan Alker, director of the Georgetown Center and co-author of the report, nationally, Native American children have the highest uninsured rate.

“And then Hispanic children have the next highest,” she adds. “But Hispanic children, because they are a growing part of our population, are disproportionately uninsured.”

Alker says raising awareness of the availability of affordable health coverage for children is key to reaching the uninsured.

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