Definition: Estimated percentage of children/youth ages 0-21 with Medicaid, CHIP, or other means-tested public health insurance coverage at the time of survey (e.g., in 2012-2016, 38.6% of California children/youth had means-tested public health insurance coverage).
Data Source: Population Reference Bureau, analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey microdata files (Feb. 2018).
Footnote: Medicare and other non-means-tested public health insurance programs (e.g., Dept. of Defense TRICARE, Indian Health Service) are not included in these estimates. Means testing considers financial circumstances in determining eligibility. Medicaid is a federal program providing health coverage to eligible low-income children and families; Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) is a federal program providing coverage to children/youth up to age 19 in families with incomes too high to qualify them for Medicaid, but too low to afford private coverage. California’s CHIP program was called the Healthy Families Program (HFP). Although California continues to receive CHIP funding, in 2013 HFP enrollees were transitioned into Medi-Cal. Data are displayed for geographies with at least 10,000 people based on 2016 population estimates. 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 the margin of error was greater than 5 percentage points. N/A means that data are not available. Some regions listed are Census Designated Places (CDPs), such as East Los Angeles; CDPs are communities within the unincorporated part of a county.