• 73,000 children in Washington State (4.4% of the child population) have no health insurance. This represents a decrease of 23% from 2004 when 95,000 children (5.9% of the child population) lacked health insurance.
  - OFM Research Brief, November 2006
  
  
• It is expected that about 45,000 additional children will be enrolled into the state's children's health programs in the 2007-2009 biennium.
  -The Washington State Caseload Forecast Council, 2007
  
  
• Nationally, 8.7 million childrenunder the age of 18, or 11.7% of the child population are uninsured. After dropping for more than 5 years, the uninsurance rate is now climbing.
  -U.S. Census Bureau, 2007
  
  
• Nationally, one-third of uninsured children went without medical care for the entire year in 2003. Conversely, nearly 88 percent of their insured counterparts received care during the same period.
  - State Health Access Data Assistance Center, 2005



• Nearly nine out of ten insured children have someone they consider their personal doctor or nurse, compared with just a little more than half of uninsured children.
  - State Health Access Data Assistance Center, 2005



• In Washington, children make up 35% of Medicaid enrollees, but account for only 16% of the costs.
  - Washington State’s Health and Recovery Services Administration, 2006



• For a child visiting a doctor for asthma the cost is about $163. An emergency room visit for asthma costs $382, and hospitalization costs more than $6,000.
  - Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, 2003



• 81% of Washington’s 2-year-old children are fully immunized.
  - Washington Kids Count, 2007



• Washington State has the lowest rate of low-birth-weight babies in the United States. In 2003, 6% of newborns had low birth weights.
  - Washington Kids Count, 2007



• Nationwide, 20% of Hispanic children were uninsured in 2003, compared with 9% of African-American children and 7% of white children. Young low-income children of immigrants are twice as likely to be uninsured as those of natives (22% versus 11%).
  - 2005 Urban Institute analysis of the National Health Interview Survey, 1998-2003



• Though Medicaid and SCHIP are covering more people, especially children, nearly one in five children living in poverty lacked health insurance coverage in 2002.
  - Urban Institute, 2005



• Dental decay is the single most common chronic disease of early childhood. Children are 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with dental disease than they are to be diagnosed with asthma.
  - Washington Dental Service, 2005

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