In Essex County, seven of every 100 kids don’t have health insurance. That’s nearly double the statewide rate of four percent, according to Advocates for Children of New Jersey’s 2026 Kids Count report, and it’s part of a national trend that’s moving the wrong way for the first time in a decade. U.S. Sen. Andy Kim wants to reverse it. On Tuesday, he introduced a bill called the MediKids Act that would automatically enroll every child in the country in health coverage the moment they’re born.
Nationally, 6.1 percent of children were uninsured in 2024, or about 4.7 million kids, according to his office’s summary of the bill. That rate fell steadily from 2008 through 2016. It has since climbed back up, a reversal that Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families says has pushed the uninsured rate for children to its highest point in nearly a decade. In a June report, the center found the overall child uninsured rate rose from 5.1 percent in 2022 to 6 percent in 2024, with an even sharper jump among children under six, whose uninsured rate climbed from 4.3 percent to 5.3 percent over the same two years, an increase of roughly 220,000 kids nationwide.
What the Andy Kim MediKids Act Would Do
The mechanics are simple, even if the politics are not. Every child would be enrolled in MediKids at birth, no application required. Coverage would continue without interruption until age 26, mirroring the Affordable Care Act provision that already lets young adults stay on a parent’s health plan. States would not pay for any of it. The federal government would cover 100 percent of the federal medical assistance percentage, the formula that splits Medicaid costs between Washington and the states, for everyone enrolled through the program.
Coverage would run through Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment benefit, a standard package of preventive and medical care already available to children on Medicaid. Kim’s office put the goal simply in the bill’s summary: “healthcare should be a right.” Families with private insurance or existing Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage could opt out if they preferred private coverage, an approach Kim confirmed to reporters when the bill was introduced.
That mechanic, automatic and free from birth, is the entire pitch. Getting it through a divided Congress is a different fight.
MediKids Has Been Tried Before
Kim did not invent the idea. Versions of MediKids have surfaced in Congress periodically since 2001, when Rep. Pete Stark and Sen. Jay Rockefeller first introduced a bill automatically enrolling children in a Medicare-style program from birth. A follow-up version drew support from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2003, and another iteration, with 55 cosponsors, was introduced in 2005. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand revived the idea again in 2009 alongside Rockefeller, aiming to cover children and young adults up to age 23. None of these bills became law.
Kim’s version enters a Senate that has changed since those earlier attempts, and not in a direction that favors it.
Who’s Backing the Bill, and What It’s Up Against
The endorsement list leans heavily on pediatric and family advocacy groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics nationally and, in New Jersey, the NAACP New Jersey State Conference and SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, among others. First Focus Campaign for Children sent Kim a letter of support in May.
That coalition signals organizing muscle, not votes. The bill does not yet have a formal number in Congress or a full cost estimate, a sign of how early it is in the process. It launches with three Democratic cosponsors, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Alex Padilla of California, and no Republican cosponsors so far. It also arrives months after Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which tightened Medicaid eligibility rules. New Jersey’s Department of Human Services estimates the law will cause about 350,000 low-income, elderly and disabled state residents to lose coverage, though other groups tracking the law’s rollout, including Advocates for Children of New Jersey, have put the number affected considerably lower, an early sign of how much the impact estimates still vary depending on who’s doing the counting. A Republican-controlled Congress that just voted to shrink Medicaid is not the easiest audience for a bill that expands it. Kim’s office referenced that law directly in the bill’s own background material, calling it a reason the uninsured rate is “only going to make things worse.”
Politics aside, the bill still touches a very local nerve.
Why Montclair Should Watch This One
Kim represents every New Jersey resident, not Montclair alone, but this is not the first time he has brought a personal health care story to a Montclair audience. He sat down with the Montclair Pod earlier this year to talk about his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and the financial toll of caregiving, telling hosts Farnoosh and Mike that the issue had become “a big part of my life’s work.”
MediKids applies that same instinct to the other end of the age spectrum, and it lands in a county where the coverage gap is already wider than the state average. That does not guarantee the bill’s success. It does mean a Montclair parent checking NJ FamilyCare eligibility or holding onto a pediatrician’s bill has more than a passing reason to watch what happens next.
How to Follow the Bill or Weigh In
Residents who want to track the MediKids Act’s progress or share their support or concerns can contact Kim’s office through his official Senate website. His Jersey City district office also takes calls from constituents directly.
Have you hit a coverage gap with NJ FamilyCare, Medicaid or CHIP for your own kids? The Pod wants to hear about it. As the bill moves through committee, we will be following the story.
Image credit: Senator Andy Kim Instagram
