Over the past two years, the percentage of uninsured children has risen, in Michigan and nationwide. Researchers from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families found that 3.4% of Michigan’s kids, or about 79,000 children, have no health insurance. That’s a nearly 10% increase Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics President Sharon Swindell tells us is troubling.
“It’s a disturbing trend when you look at it in contrast to an improving economy that the uninsurance rates are climbing again, after really good progress, after the introduction of the Affordable Care Act.”
The report says the number of uninsured kids increased by 400-thousand nationwide between 2016 and 2018. It blames the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, as well as President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, which have led many parents to remove their kids from government programs.
