Many Kids Lack Insurance, Despite Having Insured Parents

And in another study, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center propose that the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) be expanded to cover families at 200 percent to 400 percent of the federal poverty level to get children needed care.

SCHIP was created to provide public health insurance to families who earned too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private coverage. Current guidelines suggest that SCHIP cover families living at 100 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. However, the Rochester team found that kids from families with annual incomes at 200 percent to 400 percent of the poverty level ($38,000 to $76,000) are now just as likely to be uninsured as children from poorer families.

"There's a great need for health-care coverage for children, and it's not isolated to the poor. It's moving up the income scale," lead researcher Laura Shone, an assistant professor of pediatrics, said in a news release.

One expert said the findings from both studies came as no surprise.

"There are a lot of uninsured kids and working families that are struggling to cope," said Rachel Klein, deputy director of health policy at Families USA, in Washington, D.C. "Things are harder now than they were a year ago. Everything has increased in price, food has gone up, gas has gone up, health-care premiums have gone up."

Other authors in the journal weighed in on the issue. Ezekiel Emanuel, director of clinical bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, pointed out that state/federal unity is needed for successful comprehensive health-care reform.

After Massachusetts passed a landmark health reform bill in 2006, other states tried to follow suit, he noted. Not one was successful.

And in yet another paper in this themed issue, Dr. Samuel Y. Sessions, of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., proposes comprehensive tax reform as a way to effect comprehensive health reform.

More information

Visit Families USA for more on health insurance issues.

SOURCES: Oct. 21, 2008, press teleconference with Jennifer E. DeVoe, M.D., D.Phil., assistant professor, family medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland; Rachel Klein, deputy director, health policy, Families USA, Washington, D.C.; Oct. 21, 2008, news release, University of Rochester Medical Center; Oct. 22/29, 2008,Journal of the American Medical Association