Abstract: In the construction of the universal health care system, a group of people that worthy of attention is the group of children. Based on the data of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) of 2010, 2012 and 2014, this paper analyzes the actual participation of children’s social medical insurance and the actual reimbursement for their medical expenses. The results show that: (1) Children’s overall participation rate is less than 70%, and no sign shows any obvious time trend or urban-rural differences. (2) From a dynamic perspective, it is found from the three rounds of investigates that only 27.1% of the children are constantly insured, over 30% of the children cancelled after taking part in the insurance. (3) An investigation of some special groups of children finds that the participation rates of the children without permanent registered residence, the migrant children from rural to urban areas and the preschool children are much lower. (4) From the view of the reimbursement ratio, the current children’s social health insurance only reimburses the enrolled children for only 10% of their hospitalization expenditures, while the rate is even lower for ordinary outpatient services.

Key words: children’s social medical insurance; participation; rate of reimbursement