Definition: Estimated percentage of children ages 0-17 with special health care needs (CSHCN) who in the previous 12 months needed medical, dental, vision, hearing, mental health, or other care but did not receive it, by household income level (e.g., in 2024, among California CSHCN who needed health care in the previous year and lived on income at or above 400% of their household's federal poverty threshold, 10% had unmet health care needs).
Data Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Survey of Children's Health (Nov. 2025).
Footnote: The federal poverty threshold was $31,812 for a family of two adults and two children in 2024. 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 annotation [!] indicates that the margin of error for the estimate 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.
