Today is “National Child Health Day.”  Let’s celebrate the occasion by enjoying a little bit of good news on children’s health that was overshadowed last week by the generally depressing Census Bureau data on income and poverty. According to the data from the American Community Survey, the percentage of children who were uninsured decreased to 8.6 percent last year, from 9.3 percent in 2008.That progress was achieved as states took advantage of increased funding and policy improvements made by the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA). And the progress was all the more remarkable because it came at a time when child poverty jumped by 1.7 percentage points nationally (an increase of almost 10% and nearly 25 percent in WI), unemployment rose substantially, employer-sponsored insurance coverage fell sharply, and the percentage of people of all ages who are uninsured grew to 15.1 percent of the U.S. population (from 14.6%).

In Wisconsin the percentage of uninsured kids – 5.0 percent – was well below the 2009 national average. Although the state rate appears to have increased a little bit last year, 0.2 percentage points, that difference wasn’t statistically significant. BadgerCare Plus succeeded in picking up nearly all of the slack in children’s coverage as rapidly declining employer coverage reduced the number of kids with private insurance.

In celebration of National Child Health Day, the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) has issued a couple of new resources to aid health care advocates and providers in our efforts to improve the health of our nation’s children, particularly children with special health care needs (CSHCN):

Mental and Emotional Health – The Maternal and Child Health Bureau of CAHMI has released a new chartbook, The Mental and Emotional Well-Being of Children: A Portrait of States and the Nation . To accompany the chartbook release, the Data Resource Center is pleased to announce the 2007 NSCH Mental Health Chartbook State Pages. You can use these interactive profiles to compare state or national data on the prevalence of emotional, behavioral, and developmental conditions among children 2-17 years old and access to quality health care for children who have these conditions.

Disparities among Kids with Chronic Conditions – Another recent report is the 2007 NSCH Health Disparities Snapshot: Children with Special Health Care Needs. It contains data on the prevalence and demographic characteristics of CSHCN within each state, and how their health care access and quality compares to children without special health care needs.

Jon Peacock, research director