Publicly insured children have higher rates of inconsistent coverage but lower rates of inadequate coverage when compared with commercially insured children, according to a study published in JAMA Health Forum. Jamie Daw, PhD, and colleagues compared the adequacy and consistency of health insurance coverage for publicly and commercially insured children in the US. The analysis included data for 203,691 children, 34.5% of whom were publicly insured. Compared with commercially insured children, publicly insured children had higher rates of inconsistent coverage (4.2% vs 1.4%) and lower rates of inadequate coverage (12.2% vs 33.0%). During the COVID-19 public health emergency (2020-2021), inconsistent insurance decreased by 42% for publicly insured children, while inadequate insurance decreased by 6% for commercially insured children compared with data from 2016-2019. “The findings of this cross-sectional study indicate that insurance gaps are a particular problem for publicly insured children, whereas insurance inadequacy and, particularly, out-of-pocket costs are a challenge for commercially insured children,” Dr. Daw and colleagues wrote.
