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Many Oregon kids go uninsured By PETER WONG SALEM -- Despite expansion of health insurance coverage in the past two years, a new report says more children in Oregon -- and Jackson and Josephine counties -- were uninsured last year than in 1996. The report by Children First for Oregon, which it released Thursday, also said children from poor families are twice as likely to be uninsured (16 percent) as those from families above the federal poverty level. Oregon's share of uninsured children rose from 8.4 percent in 1996 to 9.6 percent last year. The share of uninsured children in the five-county region that includes Jackson and Josephine counties rose from 11 to 15 percent. The proportions dropped in Eastern Oregon and the Willamette Valley, but increased slightly in the Portland area and northwest Oregon. Yet the statewide average is still less than half the 21 percent of uninsured children recorded in 1990, before the Oregon Health Plan began in February 1994 to cover all Oregonians under the federal poverty level. The increases in uninsured children in the past two years appear to fly in the face of the 1997 Legislature's expansion of health insurance coverage, including the first subsidies for poor families to buy private insurance, and last year's federal expansion of coverage for children. Advocates for Children First for Oregon, whose report provides county-by-county data in most instances, say there are several possible explanations for the increases. As more welfare recipients move into training or work, Pam Patton of Estacada said that employers may not provide health insurance or may not extend it to children. "But the wages they earn do not allow them to pay for their own insurance, and they are not eligible any longer for coverage by the Oregon Health Plan," said Patton, who heads the group's public affairs committee. Patton also said that some families, particularly if they are poor, may not know about the availability of coverage through the Oregon Health Plan or may choose not to undergo the paperwork required to qualify for it. "Some people are afraid to obtain access to the system," said Muriel Goldman of Portland, a member of Children First. "They are suspicious." Families in areas outside the Portland metropolitan area often have fewer providers to choose from and a longer reach to obtain them. But the same report also said Jackson County's other early-childhood indicators have improved through reductions in low birthweight infants and infant mortality rates. Among the priorities of Children First for Oregon in the 1999 Legislature are health care for all children, child care for working parents, and new resources for teenagers at risk of committing crimes, such as services for young women and juvenile crime prevention. Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, said his proposal to expand an income-tax credit is intended to put more money into the hands of low-income families for child care and health care. Such a credit, which is subtracted directly from income taxes owed, was passed by the 1997 Legislature -- but the nonrefundable credit does not benefit families earning too little to pay state income taxes. "I would like to have a specific amount targeted to child care," he said. "As I listen to people in my community trying their best to earn a living on their own, it is one of the issues that is increasingly a challenge." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA