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Elementary school students arrive for the first day of school in September in Minnesota. About 3 in 4 children nationwide relied on government-subsidized health care, and 2 in 5 experience disruptions in health coverage during their childhood, according to a study by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (Photo by Stephen Maturen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
A majority of children in the United States rely on Medicaid or the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program at some point by their 18th birthday, and many experience periods of coverage loss, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA.<\/span><\/p>\n By their 18th birthday, about 3 in 4 children nationwide relied on Medicaid, CHIP (which subsidizes health care for children and pregnant women in families that earn too much for Medicaid), or the subsidized insurance marketplaces established through the 2010 Affordable Care Act \u2014 or experienced a period during their childhood without health insurance, the study found.<\/span><\/p>\n Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted estimates based on analyses of national data from 2015 to 2019, looking at cumulative coverage rates over the course of childhood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The study comes as states grapple with federal Medicaid cuts under President Donald Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The tax and spending law will reduce Medicaid funding by $1 trillion and cut enrollment by 10 million to 15 million people over the next decade, according to projections by the Congressional Budget Office.<\/span><\/p>\n About 42% of children suffered a period of losing health coverage at any point in time by their 18th birthday, the Harvard researchers found, and 61% had at some point enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP. About 78.5% were at some point enrolled in employment-based insurance.<\/span><\/p>\n Rates of children who lost insurance coverage were higher in states that hadn\u2019t expanded Medicaid income eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, often known as Obamacare. Roughly 59% of children in non-expansion states had periods without any insurance coverage \u2014 compared with 36% in expansion states. Overall, about 2 in 5 children experienced periods without health insurance, the study found.<\/span><\/p>\n And states with the strictest income thresholds saw the highest share of kids losing coverage who previously were covered by Medicaid or CHIP at birth.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUpcoming changes to Medicaid could affect a significant portion of children and worsen already substantial insurance gaps,\u201d senior author Nicolas Menzies,an\u00a0 associate professor of global health and faculty member in the school\u2019s Center for Health Decision Science, said in a statement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re particularly worried about explicit loss of public insurance eligibility for noncitizen children; spillover effects through parental Medicaid coverage losses due to work requirements and more eligibility checks; and state-level cuts to Medicaid.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n