Oregon Public Broadcasting

Nearly 200,000 children in the Northwest don’t have health coverage. A new national report out Tuesday from the group Families USA found Oregon and Idaho in the bottom half of states, with Washington emerging as a leader in insuring kids. Olympia Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

The number of uninsured kids in Washington is estimated at 7.5 percent. But Teresa Mosqueda with the Children’s Alliance, a local advocacy group, says other data indicates the number is probably more like 5 percent. Mosqueda: “Which is great news, but what we are particularly concerned with is that the number of uninsured kids and adults living in dire poverty are more likely to be uninsured than they were two years ago.” President-elect Barack Obama has a goal of covering all kids. Washington State plans to achieve that by 2010. Critics argue that Democratic plans to insure all children encourage families to drop private health insurance coverage. The new survey numbers do not reflect the recent downturn in the economy.