A Report from the Campaign for Children's Health Care
September 28, 2006

No Shelter from the Storm:
America's Uninsured Children

Key Findings

Who Are Uninsured Children?

The Number of Uninsured Children

• There were more than 9 million uninsured children (ages 0-18 years) in the U.S. in 2005. One out of  every nine children is uninsured.
• One out of every five uninsured people is a child.
• The five states with the largest number of uninsured children are California (1,368,999), Texas (1,366,638), Florida (718,603), New York (441,434), and Illinois (376,332). Together, the uninsured children in these five states account for nearly half of all uninsured children in the country.
• The five states with the highest rates of uninsured children are Texas (20.4 percent), Florida (17.0 percent), New Mexico (16.7 percent), Nevada (16.4 percent), and Montana (16.2 percent).

Working Status of Families with Uninsured Children

• The majority of uninsured children—88.3 percent—come from families where at least one parent works.
• Among 70 percent of uninsured children living with a parent, at least one family member works full-time, year-round.
• Still, 70.8 percent of uninsured children come from low-income families (families with incomes at or below two times the federal poverty level—$33,200 a year for a family of three in 2006).

Composition of Families with Uninsured Children

• Among uninsured children living with a parent, more than half—59 percent—live in two-parent households.
• In more than half of all two-parent families with uninsured children, both parents work.

Race and Ethnicity of Uninsured Children

• Hispanic and black, non-Hispanic children are disproportionately represented among the ranks of the uninsured. More than 22 percent of Hispanic children and about 13 percent of black, non-Hispanic children are uninsured, compared to 7.5 percent of white, non-Hispanic children
• However, many white, non-Hispanic children (3.4 million) are also uninsured.

Age of Uninsured Children

• Children of all ages are uninsured, but the likelihood of being uninsured is highest for children ages 13-18. Nearly 14 percent of children in this age group are uninsured, and nearly two out of five uninsured children fall in this age group.
• Still, 10.3 percent of children ages 6-12 and 10.8 percent of children ages 0-5 are uninsured.

Uninsured Children Get Less Medically Necessary Care

Less Contact with Doctors

• The likelihood of not having seen a doctor in the past year is more than three times greater for uninsured children than it is for insured children.
• Less than half (46 percent) of uninsured children had a well-child visit in the last year, compared to nearly three-quarters of insured children.

Less Likely to Have a Usual Source of Care

• Uninsured children are more than 13 times as likely to lack a usual source of care.

More Likely to Have Unmet Needs for Care

• Overall, uninsured children are nearly five times more likely than insured children to have at least one delayed or unmet health care need.
• Uninsured children are five times more likely than insured children to have an unmet dental need.
• Uninsured children are five times more likely than insured children to have an unmet vision care need.
• Uninsured children are nearly four times more likely than insured children to have an unmet need for prescription drugs.
• Uninsured children are more than three times as likely as insured children to have an unmet need for mental health services.
• Uninsured children are more than nine times as likely as insured children to have any other type of delayed care or unmet medical need.

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