Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Nevada makes strides in reducing number of uninsured children

The number of Nevada children without health insurance keeps dropping, especially among such historically hard-to-reach populations as minorities and lower-income residents, according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study released today.

The number of uninsured Nevada children dropped to 10 percent in 2014 from 14.4 percent in 2013 — the largest percentage decline among all states and the District of Columbia. That means 30,758 Nevada children gained health insurance during that one-year period.

Even more striking, the study found that in Nevada:

• The number of non-white children lacking health insurance dropped 4.5 percent, compared with 1.5 percent nationally.

• The number of Hispanic children without health insurance decreased 5.5 percent, compared with 1.9 percent nationally.

• The number of uninsured children in low-income families declined by 7.5 percent, compared with 1.7 percent nationally.

While Nevada posted a number of significant gains, 10 percent of Nevada children remain uninsured — leading to a 48th ranking among all states and the District of Columbia. In 2013, Nevada had the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation.

“We hope these gains will strengthen a bit in 2015,” said Elizabeth Lukanen, deputy director of SHADAC, a health policy center at the University of Minnesota, which compiled the report. “Nevada started at the bottom, so it really only had one direction to go.”

Nationwide, the number of uninsured children dropped by 1.2 percent from 2013 to 2014, continuing an overall downward trend that started in 2010. The report used data from the most recent American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lukanen attributed Nevada’s improvements to its Medicaid expansion, the rollout of the Affordable Care Act and overall better outreach campaigns to boost insurance rates.

The benefits extend to the entire community, she said, because healthy children tend to perform better in school than those contending with health problems. Plus, it creates a “culture of coverage” from a young age, Lukanen said.

In other words, children who grow up having health insurance are more likely to see it as a necessity in adulthood than those who don't, she said.

Alaska had the most uninsured children (12.3 percent), while Vermont had the least amount of children lacking health insurance (1.2 percent).

“This report provides an important baseline for measuring kids’ coverage under the ACA across states,” Lynn Blewett, director of SHADAC, said in a statement. “It’s likely the case that more children gained coverage as eligible parents signed up for free or low-cost health insurance, and we’re likely to see that trend continue.”

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