219— Insuring America\u27s Youth: Examining the Success of Medicaid and CHIP Coverage

Children make up 23% of the nation’s total population, but make up 32% of all persons in poverty. Given the overrepresentation of children among the US impoverished population, questions are raised on how best to provide much needed medical coverage to low income children. Currently, programs such as Medicaid and CHIP seek to provide low or no cost health coverage to children in low income households. However, the uninsured rate for children has risen from 4.9% to 5.5% in 2018. This is equivalent to about 425,000 children becoming uninsured. Do Medicaid and CHIP do enough to ensure that children in low income households receive low cost health coverage? Healthcare has become a central issue in the current 2020 presidential race. Multiple democratic candidates have advocated for “Medicare for All” single payer plans, while others advocate for a public option that would allow for both private insurance and a government run healthcare system. Would these options provide for low income children better than the current arrangement of Medicaid and CHIP coverage? These questions will be explored in detail