Children and health insurance: an overview of recent trends

This DataWatch examines trends in health insurance coverage of children using recent data from the Current Population Survey. The results indicate that the number and proportion of children who were uninsured changed little between 1988 and 1992. However, substantial changes occurred in the composition of the insured population: The proportion of children covered by employer-based private insurance declined from 60.7 percent in 1988 to 56.2 percent in 1992, while the proportion of children covered by Medicaid increased from 15.6 percent to 21.6 percent over the same period. These results indicate that a fundamental shift is occurring in responsibility for insuring the nation's children--from the private sector to the public sector.