Children's Health Care Coverage

SCHIP provides an important safety net for America's working families

Since 1997, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has provided health coverage to children whose parents work but cannot afford or are not offered health insurance. Because of SCHIP, more than 7 million children can now see a doctor when they are sick and get the health care they need to stay healthy.¹
SCHIP has effectively reduced the number of children living without health insurance by a third since it began 10 years ago.²
Children with health coverage are better prepared to learn in school and succeed in life.³ They are also more likely to get the care they need when they need it.⁴

There's More Work to Be Done

Despite the success of SCHIP, there are still 8.7 million children living without health insurance -- more than the total number of kids enrolled in the first and second grades in U.S. public schools.⁵
Experts say more than 70 percent are likely eligible for low-cost or free health care coverage through Medicaid or SCHIP.⁶
At a time when 8.7 million kids are waiting for coverage, Congress must continue to fund SCHIP and make it stronger.

Being uninsured has serious health consequences for kids

Uninsured children are less likely to receive care for childhood illnesses such as sore throats, earaches and asthma.⁷
More than half (53%) of all uninsured kids did not have a "well-child" check up in the past year -- more than double the rate of kids with insurance.⁸

This summer, efforts led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation brought together tens of thousands of organizations and individuals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to plan activities to demonstrate broad support for the reauthorization of SCHIP and help enroll eligible children in SCHIP and Medicaid.

Unless Congress acts, the State Children's Health Insurance Program will expire and millions of children may lose their health coverage. You can help:

Learn how you can get involved [1].
Find events near you [2].

Sources

¹ U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. SCHIP Every Enrolled Year Graph [3]. February 2008.
²Ibid.
³Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2000.
⁴"Covering Health Issues 2006 [4]." Alliance for Health Reform.
⁵Compiled by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), University of Minnesota School of Public Health, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey 2007.
⁶Dubay L., J Holahan, A Cook. "The Uninsured and the Affordability of Health Insurance Coverage." Health Affairs. November, 2006.
⁷American College of Physicians – American Society of Internal Medicine. "No Health Insurance? It's Enough to Make You Sick!" 2000.
⁸State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), "Protecting America's Future: A State-by-State Look at SCHIP & Uninsured Kids [5]" August 2007.

Note: This fact sheet is currently being updated to reflect numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August 2007.

Please note that EBRI's analysis defines children as individuals ages 0-17, whereas other sources may define children as ages 0-18. This difference accounts for the variance between the reported numbers of uninsured children, depending on the source and method of analysis.

Other Related Fact Sheets

Overview [6]

Age & Gender [7]

Children [8]

Immigration Status and Nativity [9]

Race/Ethnicity [10]

Educational Attainment [11]

Income & Poverty Status [12]

Workers [13]

Quick Facts on the Uninsured [14]

Uninsured Myths and Facts [15]