For years, Al Rohling watched parents quit their jobs when their kids got sick, deliberately making their incomes drop to a point where they could get U.S. government medical help, according to Reuters. Rohling, who directed Alabama's housing authority at the time, reached a startling conclusion: If children could drive parents into hardship when they became ill, could medical insurance help parents rediscover financial health? "Health care for children really is a bridge to get out of poverty," said Rohling. Rohling quit his job in 1988 to help set up the Child Caring Foundation, which provides free health insurance for children through the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama health care provider. The foundation is just one example a charity that bridges the gap between Medicaid -- subsidized insurance -- for the poorest and private health insurance paid for either privately for those who can afford it or by an employer. That gap leaves up to 9 million U.S. children uninsured in the United States, a nation with no universal health care, and many parents are forced to struggle with a patchwork of other provisions in order to get health care for their children. "The problem of the uninsured is getting worse," and the number of uninsured children has risen since 2004, said Jennifer Tolbert, principal analyst with the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a Washington-based think tank. Tolbert said it was possible the U.S. Congress could increase the scope of the State Children's Health Insurance Progam (SCHIP) to provide greater state coverage for uninsured children when it debates reauthorizing the program next year.
