	Introduction

About 8.3 million children under age 19 in the United States, or 10.4% of children in this age group, had no health insurance for at least some of 2009. (Similarly, about 10.3% of children in this age group had no health insurance for at least some of 2008.) Uninsured children are, on average, less likely than insured children to have the recommended number of well-baby and well-child medical visits and less likely to receive standard immunizations. The Data

This report uses 2009 data collected in the 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the CPS collects information on individual health insurance status, income, and poverty. This report, therefore, uses the term "uninsured" to mean uninsured at a point in 2009, not necessarily uninsured over the entire year. Of those children under age 6, 39.9% had public insurance, while 26.9% of children between 13 and 18 years old had public insurance in 2009. On the other hand, only 31.4% of children who were not citizens had employer-sponsored insurance. As family income increased, children were more likely to have employer-sponsored coverage and less likely to have public coverage. Employment Characteristics of the Parents for Children Who Live with at Least One Parent

As shown in Table 3 , among children under age 19 who live with at least one parent, there is a relationship between the insurance status of the child and the employment characteristics of the parent(s). Figure 1 looks at the total number of uninsured children and displays the percentage of uninsured children living with at least one parent by family structure. Even though Figure 1 shows that those living in two-parent households are the largest group of uninsured children, Figure 2 demonstrate that children living in two-parent families are less likely to be uninsured than children living with only one parent. These differences raise important issues for policy makers considering policy options to reduce the number of uninsured. For example, proposals that may affect the greatest number of children in two-parent families (which comprise almost 59% of the uninsured children) may not affect the greatest number of children living in single-father families (of whom 16% are uninsured). When looking simply at the uninsurance rate, the effects of the economy on the children's uninsurance rate do not seem especially meaningful. In any case, between 1999 and 2009, the offsetting downward trend in children covered by employer-sponsored health insurance and upward trend in children covered by public health insurance attenuated variations in the percentage of uninsured children.
About 8.3 million children under age 19 in the United States, or 10.4% of children in this age group, had no health insurance for at least some of 2009. (Similarly, about 10.3% of children in this age group had no health insurance for at least some of 2008.) Children living in families below the poverty threshold, children not living with at least one parent, Hispanic children, and children whose parents did not have health insurance were especially likely to be uninsured. On the other hand, children whose parents had employer-sponsored coverage were themselves likely to have employer-sponsored coverage. An extensive body of research suggests that children without health insurance are, on average, less likely than insured children to have the recommended number of well-baby and well-child medical visits and less likely to receive standard immunizations.
This report examines the characteristics of insured and uninsured children in 2009 (the latest year for which data are available) using data from the (March) Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS). The first part of the report compares broad groups of children. Those particularly likely to be uninsured in 2009 included the groups mentioned above, as well as children between ages 13 and 18, children living in the South, and children who are not U.S citizens. Groups particularly likely to receive publicly funded insurance included children of single mothers, black children, and children in families with incomes lower than the federal poverty threshold.
The second section of the report compares two methods of measuring uninsured children. Using family structure as an example, the report analyzes uninsurance both in terms of the percentage of each family status in the total pool of uninsured children (e.g., 58.9% of the pool of uninsured children were in two-parent families) and in terms of the percentage of each family status who were uninsured (e.g., 8.3% of those in two-parent families were uninsured). This difference may be important for policy makers considering policy options to reduce the number of uninsured children.
The final part of the report examines the rate of uninsured children under 18 over the past 10 years (the years for which comparable data are available). The uninsurance rate has been relatively flat over this period. This relative constancy in the children's uninsurance rate, however, masks a decline in children covered by employer-sponsored insurance and a concurrent increase in children covered by public insurance.