Andy Kim

All children and young adults in the U.S. regardless of their citizenship status would be eligible for free government health insurance from birth to 26 years of age under a federal bill introduced Tuesday, July 21, by Sen. Andy Kim, D-NJ.

Dubbed the "MediKids Act," the measure would automatically enroll children in a state's Medicaid plan — government insurance for low-income residents — regardless of a family's income.

But MediKids has an uphill battle.

It comes at a time when the Republican-led Congress has made major cuts to government health programs including Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, cuts that represent the signature economic policy of President Donald Trump's second term to maintain federal tax cuts.

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Even when Democrats controlled both houses and the White House for two years during President Barack Obama's first term, efforts to extend government health care fell flat.

Still, Kim is optimistic that the bill has a chance if Democrats were to flip the House and Senate in this year's midterm elections, even if Trump has veto power. Kim said health care should be a right and likened the bill to a moral imperative, considering that an estimated 4.6 million children are uninsured in the U.S.

"In the same way that we have every senior having health care, let's have every kid have health care," Kim said in a July meeting with NorthJersey.com. He said even if the bill faces immediate opposition, it is still a worthwhile long-term goal.

Kim's office did not have an estimate of how much MediKids would cost. Medicaid spending in the U.S. was more than $970 billion in 2025.

New Jersey's Medicaid program, called NJ FamilyCare, is the state's most expensive government program, costing taxpayers $24 billion, with the federal government providing about $14 billion and the rest from the state budget. About 300,000 of its 1.8 million users in New Jersey are expected to lose coverage starting in January under cuts outlined in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."

MediKids would automatically enroll every child at birth with parents having the option of opting out. It would cover young adults through age 26, which is also the cutoff age to remain on a parent's employer health plan under the Affordable Care Act.

Kim's legislation has already been endorsed by several medical groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

How kids are covered in the U.S.

Here's the breakdown on how the nation's 75 million children, 0 to 18 years, get their health insurance via a 2023 report by the Children's Hospital Association: