And yet Florida remained near the bottom of the states in covering kids, with almost 378,000 children still uninsured.
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Alabama leads the South when it comes to providing health insurance to children, according to a new report from the Georgetown University Health Policy Center. The rate has been declining each year for a decade because of expansions in Medicaid and passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Similarly, because of the way Florida structures its Medicaid income eligibility to get lower as a child ages, school-age children are more likely to become uninsured as they lose Medicaid coverage and their families decide not to pay the $15 to $20 per month premium for the subsidized coverage, Brennaman said. According to the study, just under 4.4 million children in the USA still don’t have health insurance. “Many children live in homes with parents who can’t afford coverage for themselves”. Nevada had the highest change, at 5.3 percent, followed by Colorado (2.6 percent), West Virginia (2.3), Mississippi (2.3), Rhode Island (2.1), Georgia (2.0), Claifornia, Arizona and Montana (1.9), Minnesota (1.8), Florida (1.7) and Kentucky and Texas (1.6).
Children are less expensive to cover than adults, and the primary care they receive can produce lifelong health benefits, Custer noted.
Brian Kirk is project manager for KidsWell Florida, a not-for-profit focused on increased access to affordable, quality health care coverage for children.
Sandy Oxley, chief executive officer of the advocacy group Voices for Ohio Children, says the data shows that Medicaid expansion, along with efforts to streamline enrollment and prevent children from going on and off of coverage have paid off.
Last year, 377,987 Florida children were uninsured.
As per the report, there are about 75,000 uninsured children in Washington, and majority are eligible for Apple Health for Kids, but they are not enrolled. He says the move helped create what he calls a “welcome mat effect” when adults went looking for insurance.
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Alker notes that while Michigan did not see a dramatic drop, the state ranks 12th among states for the percentage of children without health insurance.
