Definition: Estimated percentage of children and young adults ages 0-21 with Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, or other means-tested public health insurance coverage at the time of survey (e.g., in 2016-2020, 40.3% of California children and youth had means-tested public health insurance coverage).
Data Source: Population Reference Bureau, analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey microdata files (Aug. 2022).
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. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is a federal program providing coverage to children 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 populations of at least 10,000 based on 2020 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. Because of disruptions to data collection in 2020, American Community Survey estimates for 2016-2020 did not meet statistical quality requirements and have larger than usual margins of error; see Information and Advice on 2020 Federal Data Quality and Use.
