For background information regarding the 2013 American Community Survey, please review our blog Data Debrief: Overview of the ACS and CPS.

On Thursday, the US Census Bureau released 2013 American Community Survey data. In accordance with the CPS, as well as recent federal and private surveys, children’s health insurance rates remained steady last year.

According to the ACS, 7.1 percent of children under 18 are uninsured, totaling 5.2 million children without health coverage. Most children (58.1 percent) had private health coverage compared to public health coverage (38.3 percent).

Rate of Uninsured Children by Poverty

Among children under 19 who are below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, one in ten (10.4 percent) are uninsured. Of those children who are insured, 27.0 percent have private health insurance and 67.3 percent have government health insurance. In other words, over two-thirds of children under 19 below 200 percent of poverty rely on public health coverage underscoring the importance of programs such as Medicaid and CHIP to ensure the health of children in the United States.

Rate of Uninsured Children by State (Under 18)

• Nevada (14.9 percent), Texas (12.6 percent), and Arizona (11.9 percent) have the highest rates of uninsured children.
• Massachusetts (1.5 percent), DC (2.4 percent), and Hawaii (3.0 percent) have the lowest rates of uninsured children.
• Texas (888,000), California (673,000), and Florida (445,000) have the highest number of uninsured children. These three states make up 38 percent of the total number of uninsured children.

• Wyoming (8,000), Vermont (4,000), and DC (3,000) have the lowest number of uninsured children.

As Joan Alker and Genevieve Kenney wrote in a blog, most of the uninsured children today are eligible but not enrolled in CHIP or Medicaid coverage.

Stay tuned for CCF’s take on how children are faring in 2013 in our annual 5-state analysis of the 2013 ACS health insurance data!