PolitiFact

By: Jon Greenberg

The uninsurance rate is one of the main barometers for how the country is doing on health care. In that vein, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., sounded the alarm. “After a decade of progress, the rate of uninsured children is now rising,” Klobuchar tweeted Dec. 3. “This is very troublesome. Every child needs access to quality, affordable healthcare.” Behind Klobuchar’s tweet lies a recent report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. It found an increase in the number of U.S. children without health insurance. Between 2016 and 2017, the number grew by 276,000, and the fraction of uninsured kids — defined as children 18 and under — went from 4.7 percent to 5 percent. The Georgetown study saw increases in uninsurance in every state. The only improvement came in the District of Columbia where the rate fell from 3.1 percent to 1.2 percent. Even though a growing economy provided more children insurance through a parent’s job, it wasn’t enough to compensate for a larger decline in publicly-funded coverage.

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