By Eric Eyre
Staff writer
The Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The number of West Virginia children with health insurance has increased significantly in recent years, according to a report released Tuesday.

Most of those children apparently are being picked up by government-funded Medicaid and the state Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), not by West Virginia businesses offering private coverage. 

The number of West Virginia children without health insurance declined from 39,400 to 29,000 - a 26 percent drop - between 2003 and 2007, according to the report from Families USA, a Washington, D.C.-based health care consumer advocacy group.

That puts West Virginia 11th best in the nation when it comes to the percentage of kids - 93 percent - with health insurance. Nationally, about 89 percent of children have health insurance.

"The numbers are very positive," said Perry Bryant, director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. "All the momentum is to drive down the number of uninsured kids in West Virginia."

In August, the state CHIP board announced that 700 additional West Virginia children would receive health insurance over the next four years under a program expansion. The agency opened enrollment to families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $53,000 for a family of four. The change takes effect Jan. 1.

"CHIP is doing more outreach with the West Virginia Council of Churches to find more children eligible for the program," Bryant said. "That would be a huge plus."

The Families USA report shows the number of West Virginia children getting public health-care coverage - CHIP and Medicaid - increased from 150,300 to 167,000 between 2003 and 2007.

About 53 percent of West Virginia kids have private insurance - the seventh lowest percentage in the nation.

"There's a further decline in employer-sponsored health insurance," Bryant said. "We need to do something for the businesses to help them to be able to contain costs."

Medicaid covers about 152,000 children across the state, or 37 percent of all kids, the report found.

Bryant said a higher number of West Virginia children - about 180,000 - now receive Medicaid benefits, so the total number of insured kids is likely even higher than reported by Families USA. The group combined U.S. Census Bureau data from 2005 to 2007 to come up with the lower 152,000 figure.

"We're probably doing even better," Bryant said.

 According to the report, Texas had the lowest percentage of children with health insurance, 79.5 percent, followed by California, Florida, New York and Georgia.

Washington, D.C., had the highest percentage  - 93 percent of children insured - but the district also had a higher proportion of kids covered by Medicaid than anywhere else in the nation. Vermont had the second highest rate of children with health insurance.

The Families USA report found that the economic downtown and the Bush administration's opposition to expanding CHIP has put more pressure on states to find ways to provide health insurance for children. At the same time, many states are facing budget shortfalls, the report said.

Congress is expected to consider providing higher federal matching funds to states for Medicaid next year. Such a measure would likely be part of an economic stimulus package, which would enable states to expand health coverage as more families become uninsured, said Ron Pollack, director of Families USA.

"The provision of increased federal matching funds to the states for Medicaid is of growing importance," Pollack said. "States need to expand health coverage at a time when their budgets are increasingly precarious, so increased federal help is essential."

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