Eleven states have received federal grants to help design programs to provide health coverage for uninsured residents.

The grants, handed out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Sept. 22, total $13.6 million. Recipients will conduct studies to identify the characteristics of the uninsured. They will use that data to determine the most effective way to provide affordable health insurance similar to plans that cover government employees.

Each state also must report back to the HHS at the end of its one-year grant detailing its proposal to expand public-private partnerships to cover uninsured residents.

"We expect to receive some interesting and inventive models for covering the uninsured that will be very useful to other states and the nation as a whole," says Dr. Claude Earl Fox, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, a branch of the HHS that will administer the grant program.

The state planning grants come on the heels of $22 million in funds awarded to 23 communities to help local health care providers create networks to offer health care to the uninsured.