Despite the poor economy and an increase in the number of adults
without health insurance, the uninsurance rate among children
has declined from 9.3 percent to 8.0 percent nationally, a
report from Georgetown University finds. The researchers are
attributing the drop to growing access to the children’s
Medicaid program as a result of the Affordable Care Act (states
that reduce their eligibility are penalized), President Obama’s
re-authorization of CHIP in 2009, and the additional stimulus
funds that helped states maintain their safety-net health care
programs. Thirty-four states experienced decreases in the number
of uninsured children between 2008 and 2009, with Florida seeing
the most significant drop. Massachusetts still leads the nation
with the lowest rate of uninsured children, while Nevada
continues to have the highest. Seven states are now home to a
higher rate of uninsured children, “but in only one state,
Minnesota, was that increase significant“: There are 16 states
with a higher rate of uninsured