RIte Care, the state's health plan for the poor, is credited with making sure that most children get the health care they need.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 31, 2005

BY FELICE J. FREYER
Journal Medical Writer

Rhode Island continues to hold second place in the nation for its low rate of children without health insurance. But adults are not faring as well: For the population as a whole, Rhode Island slipped from second place to seventh place, according to new data from the Census Bureau.

Additionally, childhood poverty in Rhode Island increased significantly from 16.7 percent in 2003 to 21 percent in 2004, above the national rate of 18.4 percent.

Looking at a three-year average for 2002 through 2004, the Census Bureau reported that 5.8 percent of Rhode Island's children had no health insurance, tying with Wisconsin and behind only Vermont (which had 4.5 percent uninsured). Nationwide, 11.4 percent of children are uninsured.

Nationaly, the number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million -- up 1.1 million from 2003 -- according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure.

The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people.

"I was surprised," said Sheldon Danziger, co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan. "I thought things would have turned around by now."

Overall, the nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year. Of the 37 million living below the poverty level, close to a third were children.

The report also revealed that the number of people in the country without health-insurance coverage grew from 45 million to 45.8 million last year, but the number of people with health insurance grew by 2 million.

Charles Nelson, an assistant division chief at the Census Bureau, said the percentage of uninsured remained steady because of an "increase in government coverage, notably Medicaid and the state children's health-insurance program that offset a decline in employment-based coverage."

The percentage of Rhode Island children with employer-sponsored health coverage has fallen by 4.2 percent, according to Rhode Island Kids Count, an advocacy group that analyzed the new data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and American Community Survey.

"We're not seeing big changes on the Medicaid side," said Amy Lapierre, director for Covering Kids & Families Rhode Island, a project of Kids Count. "We're seeing more changes in the erosion of employer-covered health care." Many of the children who lose coverage have family incomes too high to qualify for RIte Care, the state's health plan for the poor, she said.

Lapierre credited RIte Care with making sure that most children get the health care they need. As of July, 118,812 people were enrolled in RIte Care, two-thirds of them children. But Lapierre asserted in a statement that possible cuts to the Medicaid program, which RIte Care is part of, could wipe out the advances the state has made in children's health.

Kids Count also drew attention to what it called the "disturbing increase" in childhood poverty. "With one in five Rhode Island children living in poverty, it is more important than ever for our state to continue its investments in RIte Care, child care and adult education and training," Kids Count executive director Elizabeth Burke Bryant said in a statement.

Looking at a two-year average of 2003 and 2004 for the adults and children together, Rhode Island had a 10.8-percent rate of uninsured people, the seventh-best in the nation. Nationally, 15.7 percent have no health insurance.

The percentage of all Rhode Islanders living in poverty in 2003 and 2004 was 11.5 percent, below the national average of 12.7 percent.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.