The percentage of Pennsylvania children lacking health insurance climbed from 2021 to 2022, a trend that could only worsen with the rollback of pandemic-era Medicaid provisions, according to advocates in the commonwealth.
Over that time period, the rate of children without insurance ticked up from 4.4% to 5.2%, according to Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children. The Keystone State now has slightly higher childhood uninsured rates than the U.S. average of 5.1% and is moving in the opposite direction from the rest of the nation, which saw an overall improvement between the two years.
Altogether, 145,000 Pennsylvania children are missing health coverage, the report found.
“They could fill every seat in Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, plus an additional 39,000 kids in the parking lot,” Kari King, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, said in a prepared statement.