November 11, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A national health care advocacy group says
more than 12 percent of South Carolina children have no health
insurance.

Families USA said at a news conference Tuesday that 132,000
children were uninsured from 2005 through 2007 about 30 percent
more than were without health insurance from 2003 through 2005.

South Carolina legislators last year approved expanding a
Medicaid program to provide health care to 60,000 children of
families with incomes between 150 percent and 200 percent of the
federal poverty level.

The executive director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal
Justice Center says the state is not doing enough to enroll kids in
the program.

The state Health and Human Services Department says 8,300
children have enrolled since the program started in April.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)