Many uninsured African Americans may be eligible for coverage through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) at little or no cost. About 1.4 million eligible uninsured African American adults (21 percent of all eligible uninsured African Americans) who reside in states expanding their Medicaid programs may be eligible for Medicaid coverage. Additionally, approximately 615,000 eligible uninsured African American children ages 0 to 18 have family incomes at or below 250 percent of FPL and may be eligible for coverage under Medicaid/CHIP (see Table 2).
More than 2.2 million African American adults live in states that are not expanding Medicaid and have family incomes below 100 percent of the FPL. If all states were to expand Medicaid, 95 percent of all eligible uninsured African Americans would be eligible for Marketplace tax credits, Medicaid, or CHIP.
Medicaid Expansion States | Non- Expansion States | All States9 | |
---|---|---|---|
Eligible uninsured African Americans |
2,372,000 34.8% |
4,448,000 65.2% |
6,820,000 100.0% |
Uninsured African Americans who may be eligible for Marketplace |
801,000 11.7% |
1,795,000 26.3% |
2,596,000 38.1% |
Eligible uninsured African Americans who may qualify for Marketplace Premium Tax Credits |
639,000 9.4% |
1,583,000 23.2% |
2,222,000 32.6% |
Eligible uninsured African Americans who may qualify for Medicaid (age 19 to 64) |
1,396,000 20.5% |
N/A10 |
1,396,000 20.5% |
Eligible uninsured African Americans who may qualify for or Medicaid/CHIP (age 0 to 18) |
175,000 2.6% |
440,000 6.5% |
615,000 9.0% |
View full report

"ib_UninsuredAfricanAmericans.pdf" (pdf, 154.88Kb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®