Youth Indicators 1996 / Indicator 45, Chart 1

Indicator 45. Health Insurance

Percent of children under 18 years old covered by Medicaid or private health insurance, by poverty status and race/ethnicity: 1993

NOTE: Hispanics may be of any race

SOURCE: Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, unpublished data.

Children from poor families were less likely to be covered by health insurance than children from other families. Medicaid was a critical factor in reducing the gap in health insurance coverage between poverty and nonpoverty children to 8 percentage points. Many children still were not covered by health insurance. About 20 percent of poverty children and 12 percent of nonpoverty children were not covered by health insurance.