Health
Child Uninsured Rate Could Rise Sharply if Arizona Doesn’t Act to Protect Children’s Coverage
KidsCare successfully brought down the child uninsured rate and proved to be a critical lifeline for more than 50% of Arizona’s children during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families at the McCourt School of Public Policy. The report examines state-by-state growth in Medicaid and CHIP enrollment during the pandemic and explains that millions of children who are still eligible for Medicaid or CHIP are at risk of losing coverage when pandemic protections go away on April 1. By law, Arizonans with AHCCCS-KidsCare health insurance have kept their coverage since March 2020.
Nationally, the report finds that 54 percent of all children are covered through Medicaid or CHIP. Thirty states, including Arizona, and the District of Columbia have at least half of their children insured through Medicaid or CHIP. The report also shows that in Arizona, AHCCCS-KidsCare enrollment grew by 31.6% from February 2020 to August 2022, with children making up 22.2% of this growth. Nationwide, an estimated 72 percent of children losing Medicaid will remain eligible, and Latino and Black children are at greater risk of inappropriately losing coverage.
Read report here
