The survey asked parents of CSHCN whether their child had insurance in the past 12 months and what kind of insurance they had. Health insurance was defined as private insurance provided through an employer or union or obtained directly from an insurance company; public insurance, such as Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), military health care (TRICARE, CHAMPUS, or CHAMP-VA); or some other plan that pays for health services obtained from doctors, hospitals, or other health professionals.
Overall, 91 percent of CSHCN were reported to have been insured for all of the previous 12 months, while the remaining 9 percent were uninsured for all or some part of the year. This represents an increase in insured CSHCN since the last survey in 2001: at that time, nearly 12 percent of CSHCN were reported to have been uninsured at some point during the previous year. This decrease in the percentage of CSHCN who were uninsured was accompanied by an increase in the percentage with public insurance.
Health insurance coverage among CSHCN varies by income level. CSHCN with family incomes below 100 percent of poverty and CSHCN with family incomes between 100 and 199 percent of poverty are the most likely to have been uninsured at some point during the past year (14 percent of each group). Children with higher family incomes are much less likely to be without insurance: 7.1 percent of CSHCN with family incomes between 200 and 399 percent of poverty were uninsured at some point during the past year, while the same was true of only 2.9 percent of CSHCN with family incomes of 400 percent of poverty or greater.
Health insurance coverage among CSHCN also varies by race/ethnicity. Hispanic children were the most likely to have been uninsured at some point during the past year (15 percent), followed by non-Hispanic Black children (11 percent). Non-Hispanic White CSHCN were the least likely to have been uninsured at some point during the year (7 percent). Although uninsured rates declined within each racial/ethnic group since the last survey in 2001, the most notable drop is for Hispanic CSHCN (from 19 to 15 percent).
