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Maine Children's Alliance

Children under age 19 without health insurance in Maine

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Why This Indicator Matters

Having health insurance is important for individual families for several reasons. Uninsured people receive less medical care and less timely care, they have worse health outcomes, and lack of insurance is a fiscal burden for them and their families. When the uninsured do have to seek medical treatment, often costs are borne by hospitals providing free care and eventually these costs are passed on resulting in higher health costs for everyone.
For more information see:  Health.gov Why Having Health Insurance Is Important

What the data shows
For 2020, the counties varied between 4.3% of children being uninsured to 10.2%, with the counties of Waldo, Lincoln, and Washington counties having the highest rate of uninsured children. Cumberland, Penobscot and Androscoggin had the lowest rates.  

For the state as a whole, the rate of uninsured children ages 19 and under was nearly unchanged between 2018 when it as 5.7% and 2019 when it was 5.6% and 2020 when it was again 5.6%. This contrasts with 2016 when the rate was 4.8%.
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Data Provided By

Definitions: Children under age 19 who were not covered by health insurance at any point during the year.
The numerator is children ages 0 - 18 who did not have health insurance at some point in time and the denominator is all children ages 0 - 18.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program produces timely estimates for all counties and states by detailed demographic and income groups. The SAHIE program produces single-year estimates of health insurance coverage for every county in the U.S. The estimates are model-based and consistent with the American Community Survey (ACS). They are based on an "area-level" model that uses survey estimates for domains of interest, rather than individual responses. The estimates are "enhanced" with administrative data, within a Hierarchical Bayesian framework.

Data Source:

Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) for counties and states



The SAHIE program models health insurance coverage by combining survey data from several sources, including: The American Community Survey (ACS),Demographic population estimates, Aggregated federal tax returns, Participation records for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), 
County Business Patterns, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) participation records.

Footnotes: Updated August 2022.