Government funded programs are a critical source of health insurance coverage for children in the United States. The National Health Interview Survey (2019) estimated that just over 41% of children under the age of 18 in the U.S. have publicly funded health insurance coverage. Health benefit programs for local, state and federal government employees, including military personnel, are a source of some of the child enrollment in health insurance plans subsidized by taxpayer dollars. However, it is the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid that are the two key drivers of public health insurance coverage for children in the United States. Medicaid is the joint state-federal health insurance program for eligible individuals with limited income and resources. Similarly, CHIP is a joint state-federal effort to make available health insurance for children from families with low incomes, but incomes not low enough to qualify for Medicaid coverage. As of September 2020, federal reports indicate that there were about 37.4 million individuals who were either enrolled in CHIP or who were children enrolled in the Medicaid program.
That same September 2020 data reveals that the four-state Southwest region accounted for almost 13% of the U.S. children who were enrolled in CHIP and, excluding Arizona, about 12% of U.S. children enrolled in the Medicaid program. Here is a summary look at CHIP and Medicaid Child enrollment in the Southwest region of the United States:
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CHIP and Medicaid Child Enrollment in the Southwest |
| State | (1) CHIP | (2) Medicaid Child | Total |
| AZ | 111.8 | -111.8 | 0.0 |
| NM | 39.7 | 303.0 | 342.7 |
| OK | 129.3 | 440.5 | 569.8 |
| TX | 591.5 | 3,026.7 | 3,618.2 |
| Region | 872.3 | 3,658.4 | 4,530.7 |
| U.S. | 6,719.1 | 30,641.9 | 37,361.0 |
Source: Medicaid.gov Enrollment Reports as of September, 2020
