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NewsFlash: September 27, 2006

Safety net failing many children

Although employer-provided health care has been steadily declining, up until last year the decline had been cushioned for children by public safety net programs, whose coverage of children from 2000 through 2004 increased as employer-based coverage declined.

In 2005, however, that trend reversed, and the percentage of children without any coverage from either their parent’s employer-provided health plan or from public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) increased for the first time in seven years. In today’s Economic Snapshot, economist Elise Gould shows how the number of uninsured children grew to a total of 8.3 million last year.

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