Ensuring the Health of America’s Children: Progress and Opportunities

Behind the headlines of a weakened U.S. economy and rising unemployment are two related developments: the transformation of health care coverage into an issue of real salience to working families and the middle class, and the ways in which states have crafted, and will continue to craft, an effective response. Over the past decade, the number of uninsured Americans has increased to 45 million, as rates of employer-based coverage have stalled or declined. Growth in both Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has helped mitigate this decline, and the rate of uninsurance among children has actually declined over the same period (Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured 2008).