November 06, 2014
By Troy Wilde,
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Despite a small gain, about one in 12 children in New Mexico do not have health insurance, according to a report from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families in Washington.
The report, “Children’s Coverage at A Crossroads: Progress Slows,” found that the state’s uninsured child rate of just under 9 percent dropped about one point in the past couple of years.
Sharon Kayne, communications director for the advocacy group New Mexico Voices for Children, says part of the challenge is promoting Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, across the state.
“Particularly we need to expand outreach to uninsured children who live in rural areas because they represent 24 percent of all uninsured children,” she says.
Kayne points out the report shows that about 43,000 children in New Mexico don’t have health insurance.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families and the report’s author, says 2013 was the first year in recent history that the uninsured rate for children did not significantly decline from the previous year.
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