Ohio child uninsured rate climbs amid Medicaid cuts

By Farah Siddiqi

Census data show more Ohio children are going without health insurance, with coverage gaps widening since states began reviewing people's Medicaid eligibility after the pandemic.

The latest analysis warned the increases are linked to administrative backlogs and policy changes, not to children becoming ineligible.

Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, said the review process, known as "unwinding," left many eligible kids without health coverage.

"Large numbers of children losing coverage during the unwinding was a sign that children who remain eligible and should have been covered in Medicaid were probably being disenrolled in error due to procedural reasons," Alker explained.

The Georgetown analysis noted Ohio is among 22 states where the child uninsured rate rose significantly between 2022 and 2024. About 152,000 children in the state are uninsured. In Ohio alone, it is 30,000 more uninsured children compared to two years ago.

Brianna Booker, policy associate for the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio, predicted looming federal cuts will only deepen the problem.

"We know that when we talk about Medicaid, anything that we do to adults happens to children, too," Booker observed. "So as we see H.R. 1 on a federal level, cuts to Medicaid, that’s going to impact our children exponentially."

She added most uninsured children remain eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but could fall through administrative cracks. Advocacy groups argued protecting coverage now will save Ohio families from larger health and economic burdens in the years ahead.