More than 9 million children in the US have no health insurance coverage and over 18 million lack insurance coverage for at least part of the year. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that nearly a third of the children uninsured during the year have least one parent who is insured and 1.3 million children of those were uninsured for the entire year. Uninsured children with insured parents are twice as likely as other children to be from low-income families and reside with only one parent.

Due to substantial differences between premium costs for an individual vs. a family plan, many low-income workers may only be able to afford private insurance for themselves. Having stable health coverage for children is associated with better health outcomes whereas gaps in coverage, even short ones, can lead to serious unmet health needs. Report authors suggest more consideration be given to how best to cover families because there are weaknesses in the employer-sponsored model.