Rate of insured Arkansas children continues to grow, report shows

Action is needed to address the uninsured rate for Arkansas children, which remains at its highest level in a decade, according to an Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families report released Wednesday. 

Nearly 57,000 kids — 7.7% of Arkansas children — were uninsured in 2024, according to the annual study, which found that children in low-income working families face the greatest risk of being uninsured. That’s 7,000 more uninsured children than the previous year. 

Hispanic, immigrant and non-English-speaking children continue to face major barriers to coverage. Hispanic children had the highest uninsured rate of any racial or ethnic group at nearly 14%, according to the study. Foreign-born children were more than seven times more likely to be uninsured than children born in the U.S.

Camille Richoux, the group’s health policy director and author of the report, said progress in covering Arkansas’ children and families has trended in the wrong direction since 2016.

“At the same time, families are facing a rapidly changing healthcare landscape,” Richoux said in a press release. “The passage of H.R. 1 and the largest cuts to Medicaid in the program’s history are expected to create new instability across the health system, with ripple effects that will impact children and families for years to come.”

H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was signed into law by President Donald Trump last year and is expected to reduce federal spending on Medicaid by about $1 trillion during the next decade to help pay for tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy. 

Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion program faces an uncertain future. The state requested permission to continue the program through the end of 2028 after the Trump administration denied its request to renew the program, which provides health coverage to more than 200,000 low-income Arkansans. 

The report also found that access to health coverage for Arkansas adults remains deeply tied to income, education and employment. Many uninsured adults are working, including in low-wage, seasonal or gig-economy jobs that don’t offer affordable health insurance, the study found. 

Women of child-bearing age continue to experience significant coverage disparities with more than 13% of Arkansas women ages 15 to 45 uninsured in 2024. 

Arkansas, which has some of the nation’s highest maternal and infant mortality rates, remains the only state in the country that hasn’t extended postpartum Medicaid to 12 months after pregnancy.