More Kids Lacked Health Coverage in '06

The latest Census report on poverty in America found the number of Americans without health insurance continues to rise. [1]

A record 47 million uninsured in 2006, including 8.7 million kids. That's 15.8% of Americans, up from 15.3% in 2005. The increase in uninsured children is more pronounced: 11.7% of kids lack coverage, up from 10.9% the prior year.

Since the passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997 through 2004, the program succeeded in reducing the percentage [2] of uninsured kids, while the percentage of uninsured adults -- not served by any new public insurance plan -- has gone up [3].

But in the last two years, we're seeing more kids go without insurance. Why?

Fewer private-sector employers are providing sufficient coverage. Making the expansion of SCHIP even more critical if we are to keep our kids healthy.

From the Washington Post [4] article on the new Census report:

The addition of 2.2 million people to the roster of the uninsured was attributed largely to continuing declines in employer-sponsored insurance coverage.

...

Kathleen Stoll, health policy director of the liberal advocacy group Families USA, said the uptick in the uninsured illustrated the "critical role" played by government-subsidized insurance programs such as Medicaid, which serves very low income children and pregnant women, and SCHIP, whose target population is children of the working poor.

"Despite SCHIP's earlier success in decreasing the number of uninsured children, their numbers have risen for the second straight year because of a decline in employer-based coverage," Stoll said in a statement. "Today census numbers only confirm what state officials and health care advocates have seen first-hand -- SCHIP resources must be increased to meet the health care needs of the increasing number of uninsured children."

President Bush and his conservative allies were already failing to make headway to turn the public against expanding children's health insurance.

Not only do the polls show strong support [5] for investing in kids' health, in recent days editorials from Tulsa to New York [6] to Columbus [7] to Atlanta [8] are burying the weak arguments from the conservative machine.

Now we have even more information showing a growing problem.

The House and Senate have passed bills to address the problem, while Bush and the conservatives have offered nothing but obstruction and misinformation.

In turn, they are standing on even shakier ground.