The Daily News of Newburyport

By: Christian M. Wade

The number of children without health insurance is rising in Massachusetts for the first time in years, according to a report that blames divisive national politics for the reversal. An estimated 20,000 children in the state didn’t have health insurance in 2017, an increase of about 5,000 children from the prior year, according to a new report from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. The surge knocked the state off its No. 1 ranking for the smallest portion of uninsured children. In fact, Massachusetts was one of nine states – including Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee – that saw substantial increases in the number of uninsured kids. Nationally, an estimated 3.9 million children did not have health insurance in 2017, according to the Georgetown researchers, an increase of 276,000 from the previous year. “It’s a troubling sign,” said Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy who contributed to the study. “We’ve made significant progress in the last decade covering all kids, and now we’re moving in the opposite direction.”

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