Republicans can take heart on this sad Obamacare enrollment good news day because they've achieved something in their relentless war on health insurance: They've kept millions of children off of the health care coverage rolls.
The majority of children not covered by any kind of insurance are in red states, and in those states that refused to take Medicaid expansion. In those states, the Kaiser Family Foundation finds,
75 percent of the uninsured are children.
While all states have already significantly expanded coverage to children through Medicaid and CHIP, not all eligible children are enrolled in the program due to lack of parent knowledge about their eligibility and historic enrollment barriers. Over 5.2 million of the 14 million (37%) currently uninsured individuals who are estimated to be eligible for Medicaid in 2014 are children. In states not implementing the Medicaid expansion, children account for 75% of the uninsured eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.
Medicaid expansion in those states, as well as outreach efforts by the states, would let more parents know about their eligibility for health care coverage through Medicaid. That would bring more children into both Medicaid and SCHIP as the parents discovered their eligibility. That would make Republicans sad.