Between 2013 and 2015, the U.S. experienced the largest two-year decline in the number of uninsured children ever recorded. And the state of California led the way.
A new report from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute Center for Children and Families provides the details.
From 2013 to 2015, about 1.7 million children gained coverage in the U.S. California saw the number of uninsured children drop by about 371,000 — a 55 percent reduction. The report points out most of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act were implemented in those years.
Today, more than half of the nation’s kids who are still uninsured live in California, Texas and five other states.
The report finds the vast majority of those kids are eligible for public coverage, but aren’t enrolled. Children who are living in the U.S. illegally make up only 5 percent of those who remain uninsured.