Definition: Estimated prevalence of special health care needs among children ages 0-17, by type of health insurance coverage (e.g., in 2024, among California children with private health insurance only, 17.4% had special health care needs).
Data Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Survey of Children's Health (Nov. 2025).
Footnote: 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 20 respondents in that group, or (b) 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.
