According to the newspapers survey in Portland about 118,000 Oregon children lack in health insurance; this is the highest total in the past decade.

One in eight Oregon children under the age of 19 is with out Health Insurance, even though the state Medicaid program for low-income children now covers more children than ever.

Driving the disparity is the fact is that very less children enjoys the benefits of Health insurance, because many low-wage workers cannot afford to buy family health insurance through their employer and income.

The newspaper found that uninsured children are living in all of the state's 36 counties,. However the uninsured rate in far Eastern Oregon carries more than twice the rate in metropolitan Portland. And uninsured children are disproportionately Latino and Native American.

Comparatively more than half children have al least one parent with a job, and most aren’t poor by the federal definition, meaning that they don't live in households with annual incomes of less than $20,000 for a family of four.

The Oregon Health Plan - the state's version of Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income residents - has expanded eligibility for children over the past decade. The health plan, including the state Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, now covers about 220,000 children from families with incomes up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $37,000 a year for a family of four.