The Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has covered health insurance for children in middle-income families since 1997: https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2017/08/03/what-every-policy-make.... CHIP eligibility ranges from 175% of the federal poverty line in Wyoming to 405%. So how are their children who don't have coverage?
IDRTA but they probably are in family situations where the parents are borderline or actually incompetent. They just don't sign up, or aren't aware that it's available, when they need care they go to the ER and don't pay anyway so why do more than that?
This is the reality (and the system actually handles this "relatively" well, all things considered).
There's a reason that if you dip your toe into ANY of the various support things, they ALL immediately apply for you.
(Kids in general and for the large part are pretty healthy, the numbers of "major health issues" that aren't broken bones/scrapes/flu are pretty small overall. So if you're poor/don't care, you just roll the dice. 999/1000 it's going to come out ahead for you.)
