Children's Health Insurance and the ACA

The Urban Institute’s Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) has been tracking health insurance coverage among nonelderly adults since the first quarter of 2013.¹ The HRMS, which was designed to provide early feedback on implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), found that uninsured rates had declined by 4.0 percentage points among nonelderly adults between September 2013 (just before the first open enrollment period began) and June 2014, with larger declines found in states that have expanded Medicaid (Long, Kenney, Zuckerman, Wissoker, et al. 2014). Beginning in June 2013, the HRMS added a supplement to track changes in coverage and other outcomes for children under the ACA. This brief examines findings from the HRMS children’s supplement.