Trends in Children's Health Insurance Coverage for Families with Children, 1996-2002(First Half). Statistical Brief Number 99

摘要

This Statistical Brief presents data from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) for the first part of calendar years 1996 through 2002 on childrens health insurance coverage for families with children. All estimates in the brief are presented at the family level and include only those families with children ages 18 and under.1 For ease of presentation, the word family will be used to represent families with children age 18 and under. For this analysis, families are constructed to include adults and children who would typically be eligible for coverage under the adults private health insurance family plans (for example, children and their parents). Childrens health insurance status at the family level is reported using a variety of statistics. The prevalence of insurance (and uninsurance) is reported for families where at least one child is insured (or uninsured). A more detailed coverage measure reports childrens insurance status across four categories: 1) families where all children are covered by private insurance, 2) families where all children are covered by public insurance, 3) families where all children are uninsured, and 4) families where children in the same family have different types of insurance coverage (for example, one child may be uninsured, while another is covered by public insurance).