Advocates Worry Progress On Cutting State’s Uninsured Rates In Children Has Stalled
Although California's statistics are better than other rates, the number of uninsured children in the state has stagnated at 3.1 percent. Some are worried, though, that it's a sign California's marketplaces are starting to feel the impact of national efforts to chip away at the health law.
The California Health Report:
Decline In California's Uninsured Rate Among Kids Has Stagnated, Raising Concerns
[Pediatrician Ilan] Shapiro, and many other health care providers who work with low-income people in California, are worried. Federal attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, along with hostile policies toward immigrants, are threatening to unravel the state’s progress toward getting almost all children insured. A new report by Georgetown University has heightened that concern. The report, released last week, shows the number of children nationwide without health insurance went up last year for the first time since 2008, resulting in an additional 276,000 uninsured children. California’s uninsured rate for kids stagnated at 3.1 percent (around 300,000 children), down from 11 percent in 2008. That’s better than the situation in many other states, but it could be a sign that California is starting to feel the impact of the Trump administration’s policies, said Edwin Park, a Georgetown University research professor who contributed to the report. (Boyd-Barrett, 12/3)