Report: 60,000 more Iowa kids are insured

DES MOINES – About 60,000 more Iowa children are covered by government-based health care now than three years ago, according to an analysis issued by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership on Tuesday.

Carrie Fitzgerald, senior health policy associate with the Child & Family Policy Center, and center executive director Charles Bruner issued a two-page report indicating that increasing numbers of children and families – many who would not have access to quality and affordable health care otherwise -- in every Iowa county are benefitting from health-insurance coverage via Medicaid or the state's Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa (HAWK-I) programs.

"Efforts to expand coverage through Medicaid and HAWK-I are making a difference in the lives of children across the state. This is the result of a two-pronged public policy effort at the state and federal levels," Fitzgerald said. "More than one-third of children in every congressional district have health coverage through public programs.”

According to partnership documents, the percentage of Iowa children covered by the Medicaid or HAWK-I programs increased from 29 percent to 37 percent from April 2007 to April of this year. Without those programs, she said, “the impact of the recession on uninsured families would be even more difficult than they have seen.”

The 5

^th

congressional district had the largest share of children covered at 41.2 percent. The congressional district numbers were as follows: 1

^st

District 52,437 covered, 37.7 percent, up from 30.2 percent; 2

^nd

District 51,787 covered, 36.1 percent, up from 29.3 percent; 3

^rd

District 55,367 covered, 34.3 percent, up from 24.7 percent; 4

^th

District 46,882 covered, 35.4 percent, up from 26.9 percent; and 5

^th

District 56,161 covered, 41.2 percent, up from 31.7 percent.

The data is available at the Iowa Fiscal Partnership's http://www.iowafiscal.org/100727-HCR-children.html Web site.

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