The study, The State of Kids’ Coverage, coincided with the start of the Covering Kids & Families Back-to-School Campaign, “a nationwide effort to enroll eligible children in public health coverage programs during the back-to-school season.” An amazing statistic is the number of uninsured kids has decreased by 2 million since SCHIP was created.
These positive numbers for children are in sharp contrast to the nearly 5 million people who have become uninsured since SCHIP began. The states with the sharpest decreases of uninsured kids are “Arkansas (-60%), Maine (-50%), Alabama (-47%), South Carolina (-46%) and North Dakota (-44%).” There was an especially sharp surge of kids enrolled in “public coverage (SCHIP or Medicaid) since 1997-98 in Alaska (+139%), Maryland (+139%), Indiana (+132%), Wyoming (+114%) and Arkansas (+109%).”
A still shocking 8.3 million children are uninsured nationwide with “70 percent of those kids eligible for low-cost or free health care coverage through SCHIP or Medicaid, but have not yet enrolled.” The number for parents or others to use in order to find out if their children are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP is 1 (877) KIDS-NOW or 877-543-7669.
I encourage you to go to the website and read the press release for more information about uninsured children. The Back-to-School Campaign will be working with organizations, schools, Major League Soccer and many companies to get information to parents.
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