Every year around this time, CCF releases a 50-state report on uninsured children. Since we started publishing the report, we’ve always had good news to share about the progress being made for uninsured children. This year, the news wasn’t quite so rosy. The national uninsured rate for children seems to have hit a plateau.

The national rate may obscure fluctuations in various states so a state-by-state analysis is helpful for those trying to understand what’s going on for children’s coverage. As my colleagues Joan Alker and Alisa Chester report, 12 states saw improvements, 36 saw no statistically significant change in coverage rates for children and 3 states actually moved backward.

Whether this is an aberration or a warning sign remains to be seen but given the importance of health coverage to children’s well-being, it’s important to keep our eyes wide open on what’s happening on this front.

We are looking forward to hearing from our friends working on health policy in the states for more on the story behind the numbers and hope we’ll have some guest blogs to share with Say Ahhh! readers soon.

For more on the report, I leave you with the words of Joan Alker from her video statement: