Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are primary sources of health coverage for low-income children, especially for children of color because they are more likely to be economically disadvantaged. As such, these sources of health insurance offer an opportunity to assess and address existing health disparities. In this analysis, we use the U.S. Office of Management Budget (OMB) standards for reporting race separate from ethnicity. People of any race may be of any ethnic origin and vice versa. The majority of children with Medicaid (56.8 percent) identify as White although they comprise two-thirds of the child population (66.6 percent). Figure 1 shows the disproportionate reliance on Medicaid for Black, other or multi-racial, and Latino children, in particular. Black children make up 14 percent of the child population but represent 20.8 percent of children with Medicaid. Likewise, children who report "other" or "multiple races" represent 13.3 percent of the child population but 17.5 percent of children with Medicaid. With respect to ethnicity, 25.3 percent of children identify as Latino but make up 36 percent of children with Medicaid. Appendix tables 1 and 2 provide these data for all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
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