Texas, Florida lead nation in uninsured children

Families USA has released a new report highlighting a disturbing aspect of our nation's health care crisis: the fact that 9 million children have no health insurance.

Even more disturbing is the fact that most of these children have parents that work. As the AP reports:

Most of the 9 million uninsured children in the U.S. live in homes where at least one parent works full time. In more than one-quarter of the cases, there are two working parents. [...]

"I think they believe these are low-income people who don't work, who are very different from themselves," said the group's executive director, Ron Pollack. "These are people who work, who are doing the right thing." [...]

Overall, 88.3 percent of uninsured children age 18 and under live in households with a working parent. About 70 percent live in households were a parent works full time, year-round, according to the report.

States in the South and West lead the list for most uninsured children:

The five states with the highest rates of uninsured children are Texas, 20.4 percent; Florida, 17 percent; New Mexico, 16.7 percent; Nevada, 16.4 percent; and Montana, 16.2 percent.

Vermont had the lowest rate of uninsured children -- 5.6 percent. Michigan, Hawaii and New Hampshire were next at 6.4 percent. The national rate is 11.6 percent.

Many assume that children still find coverage through Medicaid and state-based Children's Health Insurance Programs. Yet the report notes that because the parents work, many children aren't eligible because the programs are aimed at families below the poverty line (Medicaid) or just above it (CHIP). On top of that,

"The reason these children are not participating is that, No. 1, many don't know about it, and No. 2, the enrollment process is cumbersome," [Families USA's Ron] Pollack said.

There's also a racial bias in which children fall through the cracks:

Families USA said that about 3.4 million of the uninsured children in the U.S. are white, about 1.5 million are black, and about 3.5 million are Hispanic.