The latest data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey show that the U.S. rate of uninsured children increased to 6% in 2024, after holding at 5% for three years in a row. More than half of the states and D.C. saw their rates rise, as well. Nationwide, this equates to nearly 4.7 million kids under age 19 lacking insurance coverage in 2024, an increase of about 500,000 from 2023, largely due to expired pandemic-relief measures. Experts project these numbers will continue to rise. Whether uninsured rates trend up or down, large disparities persist by children’s race and ethnicity, immigration status, age and geography, highlighting our country’s inequitable access to health coverage that must be addressed.
How the Pandemic Affected Coverage
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Congress passed multiple relief measures that bolstered the insurance safety net for children and families, including:
- increased state funding for Medicaid and continuous coverage protection to keep states from disenrolling people until April 1, 2023;
- reduced costs for purchasing coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance marketplace and expanded enrollment periods and outreach; and
- expanded federal and state measures, such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), to improve access to insurance.
These policy efforts helped low-income families weather the pandemic’s economic crisis and contributed to the low 5% uninsured rate for kids from 2021 to 2023. However, after pandemic protections expired in early 2023, the number of uninsured Americans began to climb — and by Sept. 2025, an estimated 17.3 million individuals had lost Medicaid/CHIP coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Additional legislative changes in 2025 have led the Congressional Budget Office and others to project a continued rise in individuals without health coverage.