According to recent studies by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, between 7 and 8 million children under the age of 18 are living without health insurance.

While this staggering figure is down from the reported 10 million uninsured children in 1997, the CDC maintains that this still-present epidemic stifles the health and growth of Americas children. In fact, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reports that one in three children go for an entire year without seeing a doctor.

Its not surprising that the health of children depend, in part, on their access to the health care system. And with the rising cost of health insurance, many families are simply not able to afford health coverageleading to missed physician appointments, skipped prescription refills and lack of immunizations for our youngsters.

The Good News

Fortunately for families and youngsters, state and federal governments are working toward insuring more of our kids. Programs like the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Medicaid are expanding their eligibility requisites to include more children in effort to eradicate the poor but not poor enough trend in public health care.

Medicaid is also joining forces with state programs to provide incentives for parents to schedule checkups for their children. Health Partners of Minnesota, for example, partnered with Medicaid to send families with children ages 10, 12, 16 and 18 a postcard during the month of their birthdays to encourage a checkup. The postcard also offered children a $30 gift card to a local retailer after the completion of their checkupadding additional incentives to put health on the forefront.

Additional Initiatives

In addition to the strides taken by Medicaid and state health programs, Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has proposed several ideas to help children and families get the health coverage they need.

Such strides include:

• Intensifying local efforts to get kids who are eligible, but not enrolled in SCHIP and other available programs.
• Giving states the option to broaden state health programs to include an estimated 2 million Americans living below the poverty line but are still ineligible for state care.
• Providing refundable tax credits for the estimated 15 million Americans who do not meet public healthcare requirements.
• Providing bridge loans to help middle-class workers maintain health coverage after becoming unemployed, helping to reduce insurance gaps.

Protecting Future Generations

Its clear that children without health insurance remain at greater risk for disease, prolonged illness and lack of healthcare. While theres still a great deal of work that needs to be done, the abovementioned incentives and public programs are working to make a major dent in the population of uninsured kids.

If youd like to know more about these programs, you can contact your local Division of Insurance for information, eligibility requirements and application forms.