Definition: Estimated percentage of children ages 0-17 with special health care needs (CSHCN) whose families had and did not have out-of-pocket expenses related to the child's health in the previous 12 months, by type of health insurance coverage and amount paid (e.g., in 2024, 85.8% of California CSHCN with public health insurance only had less than $500 in out-of-pocket health expenses in the previous year).
Data Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Survey of Children's Health (Nov. 2025).
Footnote: Out-of-pocket expenses cover medical, health, dental, and vision care. Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. These estimates are based on a survey of the population and are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. The notation S refers to estimates that have been suppressed because (a) there were fewer than 3 respondents in that group, (b) there were fewer than 20 total respondents and all were in the same group, or (c) the margin of error for the estimate is 10 percentage points or greater. The annotation [!] indicates that the estimate's margin of error is greater than 5 percentage points but less than 10 percentage points. For more information, see https://www.childhealthdata.org/learn-about-the-nsch/NSCH.
