• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

PNHP

  • Home
  • Contact PNHP
  • Join PNHP
  • Donate
  • PNHP Store
  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Board and Staff
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Local Chapters
    • Students for a National Health Program
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Mental Health Care
    • Health Care Voters Guide
    • COVID-19 Endangers Health Workers
    • COVID-19 Exacerbates Racial Inequities
    • Public Health Emergencies
    • Rural Health Care
    • Racial Health Inequities
    • Surprise Billing
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
      • Policy Details
      • FAQs
      • History of Health Reform
      • Información en Español
    • How do we pay for it?
    • Physicians’ Proposal
      • Full Proposal
      • Supplemental Materials
      • Media Coverage
    • House Bill
    • Senate Bill
  • Stop REACH
    • ProtectMedicare.net
    • Sign our Petition
    • Organizational Sign-On Letter
    • About the REACH Model
    • About Direct Contracting
  • Take Action
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
    • Organizing in Red Districts
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Member Resources
    • 2022 Annual Meeting Materials
    • Newsletter
    • Slideshows
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
      • Why we Need Medicare for All
      • PNHP’s 8-point plan
      • New Study: Perils and Possibilities
      • Emergency COVID-19 Legislation
      • Kitchen Table Toolkit
      • Take Action on COVID-19
      • Telling your COVID-19 story
      • PNHP members in the news
    • Events Calendar
    • Webinars
    • Film Room
    • Join or Renew Your Membership

Latest Research

24.4 million children – including millions with serious illnesses – had no or inadequate health coverage in 2019: Harvard study

New analysis finds the number of uninsured children rose to 6.3 million during the first three years of the Trump Administration, while the number with only partial coverage rose to 18.1 million

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 23, 2021

Contact: Adam Gaffney, M.D., M.P.H., agaffney@cha.harvard.edu 
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., swoolhan@hunter.cuny.edu
Clare Fauke, communications specialist, Physicians for a National Health Program,  clare@pnhp.org

In a study published Monday, researchers at Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York at Hunter College find that the number of uninsured children rose from 5.9 million to 6.3 million between 2016-19. During that same period, the number of children with inadequate coverage (a group often labeled “underinsured”) increased from 16.2 million to 18.1 million.

The study analyzed data on 128,621 children from the National Survey of Children’s Health. The researchers considered children uninsured if they lacked coverage at any point during the year. Children were classified as underinsured if their parent/guardian reported that their insurance never or only sometimes covered the services and providers they needed, or that it imposed unreasonable out-of-pocket costs—following the definition used in earlier studies.

The study found that the proportion of children with inadequate insurance (either uninsured or underinsured) was lower in ACA Medicaid expansion states (30.9%) than in non-expansion states (35.3%). Somewhat surprisingly, underinsurance was more common among privately-insured (34.8%) than publicly-insured (17.5%) children, likely reflecting the high copayments and deductibles in many private plans.

The researchers found that nearly one in three children with serious chronic illnesses or impairments were inadequately insured, including an average of 154,349 children with diabetes each year, 304,292 with heart disease, 1,902,839 with attention-deficit disorder, and 2,081,189 with asthma.

“Children’s health coverage was deteriorating even while the economy was booming,” noted Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a primary care physician and Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York’s Hunter College and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School. “On the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic millions of American families couldn’t afford the care their children needed, increasing their medical and financial vulnerability,” Woolhandler added.

Dr. Adam Gaffney, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance, noted, “Much recent debate has centered on the critical need to expand coverage for older adults. Our findings indicate that there are also huge coverage gaps for kids. Some proposed reforms—like covering all children under Medicaid—would offer a partial fix. But we found that even kids with Medicaid often couldn’t get the care they needed. Only universal national health insurance reform can assure access to care for both kids and adults.”


“Medical Uninsurance and Underinsurance Among US Children: Findings From the National Survey of Children’s Health, 2016-2019,” Adam Gaffney, M.D., M.P.H.; Samuel Dickman, M.D.; Christopher Cai, M.D.; Danny McCormick, M.D., M.P.H.; David U. Himmelstein, M.D.; Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.; JAMA Pediatrics.

Published online first August 23, 2021


Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is a nonprofit research and education organization whose more than 24,000 members support single-payer national health insurance. PNHP had no role in funding or otherwise supporting the study described above.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Latest Research

  • CMS Should terminate the Medicare Advantage Program
  • Hospitals That Serve Many Black Patients Have Lower Revenues and Profits: Structural Racism in Hospital Financing
  • Health Care Debt In The U.S.
  • Universal healthcare as pandemic preparedness
  • Healthcare and Racial Justice
  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Board and Staff
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Local Chapters
    • Students for a National Health Program
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Mental Health Care
    • Health Care Voters Guide
    • COVID-19 Endangers Health Workers
    • COVID-19 Exacerbates Racial Inequities
    • Public Health Emergencies
    • Rural Health Care
    • Racial Health Inequities
    • Surprise Billing
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
      • Policy Details
      • FAQs
      • History of Health Reform
      • Información en Español
    • How do we pay for it?
    • Physicians’ Proposal
      • Full Proposal
      • Supplemental Materials
      • Media Coverage
    • House Bill
    • Senate Bill
  • Stop REACH
    • ProtectMedicare.net
    • Sign our Petition
    • Organizational Sign-On Letter
    • About the REACH Model
    • About Direct Contracting
  • Take Action
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
    • Organizing in Red Districts
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Member Resources
    • 2022 Annual Meeting Materials
    • Newsletter
    • Slideshows
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
      • Why we Need Medicare for All
      • PNHP’s 8-point plan
      • New Study: Perils and Possibilities
      • Emergency COVID-19 Legislation
      • Kitchen Table Toolkit
      • Take Action on COVID-19
      • Telling your COVID-19 story
      • PNHP members in the news
    • Events Calendar
    • Webinars
    • Film Room
    • Join or Renew Your Membership

Footer

  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Board and Staff
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Local Chapters
    • Students for a National Health Program
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Mental Health Care
    • Health Care Voters Guide
    • COVID-19 Endangers Health Workers
    • COVID-19 Exacerbates Racial Inequities
    • Public Health Emergencies
    • Rural Health Care
    • Racial Health Inequities
    • Surprise Billing
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
      • Policy Details
      • FAQs
      • History of Health Reform
      • Información en Español
    • How do we pay for it?
    • Physicians’ Proposal
      • Full Proposal
      • Supplemental Materials
      • Media Coverage
    • House Bill
    • Senate Bill
  • Stop REACH
    • ProtectMedicare.net
    • Sign our Petition
    • Organizational Sign-On Letter
    • About the REACH Model
    • About Direct Contracting
  • Take Action
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
    • Organizing in Red Districts
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Member Resources
    • 2022 Annual Meeting Materials
    • Newsletter
    • Slideshows
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
      • Why we Need Medicare for All
      • PNHP’s 8-point plan
      • New Study: Perils and Possibilities
      • Emergency COVID-19 Legislation
      • Kitchen Table Toolkit
      • Take Action on COVID-19
      • Telling your COVID-19 story
      • PNHP members in the news
    • Events Calendar
    • Webinars
    • Film Room
    • Join or Renew Your Membership
©2023 Physicians for a National Health Program,