The figures underscore that working parents in Michigan who earn modest incomes are experiencing dramatic erosion in employee benefits. As a result, uninsured children -- one in every 16 children in Michigan -- are going without needed health care.

Nationally, fewer than half (47 percent) of parents in families earning less than $40,000 a year are offered health insurance through their employer -- a nine percent drop since 1997. Meanwhile, offers of health insurance to parents who earn $80,000 or more have held steady at about 78 percent.

The analysis shows more than half of uninsured kids in Michigan (57 percent) live with adults who earn modest incomes, calculated at less than $40,000 for a family of four. Many of these uninsured children would likely be eligible for free or low-cost insurance coverage through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) -- called MIChild in Michigan -- which Congress is set to reauthorize this year. Signed into law in 1997, SCHIP provides each state with federal funds to design a health insurance program for vulnerable children. The states each determine eligibility rules, benefit packages and payment levels.

"Health care for children is critical to Michigan's future," says Charles Barone, M.D. chief of pediatrics, Henry Ford Hospital. "Children who have access to a 'medical home' are better prepared to learn in school and are more likely to have higher rates of attendance. We have an epidemic of childhood obesity in Michigan. Access to preventive health care is part of the solution to this issue. The MIChild program is making health care available to Michigan's children who otherwise may be using emergency rooms for their needs."

"In reauthorizing SCHIP, Congress must provide the funds needed to maintain coverage for all currently enrolled kids and the millions more who are eligible but unenrolled. We must ensure that children whose parents work hard but cannot afford health insurance for their kids can get the health care they need to thrive," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "For the last decade, SCHIP has provided a much-needed safety net for our nation's kids, especially as there has been a decline in the number of low-income families covered by employer- sponsored health insurance. Parents who earn modest wages are less likely to be offered insurance on the job, and less able to afford to purchase it independently."

Other state-specific information contained in the analysis includes:

• More than 160,000 children in Michigan (6 percent) are uninsured --
  approximately one in every 16 kids. This is below the national average
  of 12 percent, or one in every eight kids.
  
• In Michigan, two out of three uninsured children (63 percent) live with
  someone who works full-time.
  
• Since SCHIP began 10 years ago, the number of children living without health insurance has dramatically dropped. Recent data shows that more than 6 million children in the United States were enrolled in SCHIP including about 90,000 people a year in Michigan.
  
• For Michigan kids in families who earn modest wages (defined as $40,000 a year for a family of four), the need for SCHIP is great. More than half of uninsured kids (57%) in Michigan are in families that earn
  modest incomes.

Today's report was prepared by analysts at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), located at the University of Minnesota. The report analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau (1998-2006 Current Population Surveys), U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2002-2005) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Interview Survey (1997 and 2005).

Source: Cover the Uninsured Week 2007

Copyright PRNewswire (2007). All rights reserved.