Uninsured US kids have stable families, report says

By Maggie Fox

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most of the 9 million U.S. children who lack health insurance live with both parents, at least one of whom works, a consumer group said on Thursday, in a finding they said shows many people cannot afford health insurance under the existing system.

More than 88 percent of the uninsured children have at least one working parent, the report from Families USA found.

But more than 70 percent of uninsured children are in families with incomes of less than twice the federal poverty level, which is $33,200 a year for a family of three.

"This finding is significant because, in most states, children are eligible for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) if their family incomes are below 200 percent of the federal poverty level," Families USA said in a statement.

"A key issue about the SCHIP program, which Congress is expected to reauthorize in 2007, is whether sufficient resources will be made available to states to enroll all eligible children."

The consumer group used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2005 National Health Interview Survey done by the National Center for Health Statistics for its report.

"Even though progress has been made in expanding health coverage for children, one out of every nine American children continues to be uninsured," said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA.

"For those 9 million uninsured children, the resulting harm is huge - in denied health care as well as stunted educational and personal development."

Children without health insurance are less likely to see doctors until they become seriously ill, Pollack said.

"Uninsured children were more than three times as likely to not have had a doctor visit in the past year," said Pollack told a news conference.

DIABETIC COMA

Dr. David Alexander, a pediatrician at the National Association of Children's Hospitals, told about the case of a 15-year old girl he treated who came into the hospital emergency room in a diabetic coma. She had been ill but her parents decided they could not afford to send her to a doctor.

"Why she got diabetes was a combination of bad luck and genetics. Why she was in a coma was a consequence of a lack of health insurance," Alexander said.

Up to two-thirds of uninsured children should be eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP, if funding for the programs is made available by states and the federal government, Alexander said.

"If we can get this done, we'll whittle down the number of uninsured children to just a few million - and I can't believe I am saying 'just' a few million," he said.

"As a nation, we cannot afford to jeopardize children's health during their most crucial developmental years, undermining the foundation which we know is so critical to achieving future social, intellectual and economic success," said Shay Bilchik, president of the Child Welfare League of America.

A second study released on Thursday showed that in 2005, the number of Americans without any health insurance grew by nearly 7 million to a total of 46.6 million in the past year alone. The number of U.S. uninsured has been rising since 2000.

Close to 16 percent of the population now lacks health insurance, either private, employer- or government-provided, the liberal Economic Policy Institute reported.