Missouri News Service

By: Suzanne Potter

About 75,000 children in Missouri lacked health insurance in 2017, or about 5.1 percent, according to a new report from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. That’s a small increase over 2016 and is just above the national average, which increased from 4.7 to 5 percent. The report showed that no state, aside from Washington, D.C., made gains in getting kids insured, despite a strong economy. Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown Center, notes that Missouri is one of 14 states that chose not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. “We found three-quarters of the children who lost coverage between 2016 and 2017 live in states that have not expanded Medicaid to their parents and other adults,” Alker points out. “Really, the only thing I think at this point that a state could do to overcome these negative national currents would be to expand Medicaid.”

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