On Friday, the Health Affairs Journal published a report revealing that in the year 2008 neither Medicaid nor the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) supported the insurance of a daily average of 7.3 million uninsured US children. The shocking news is that 39% of these children were eligible to benefit from both programs.

This research was conducted by Genevieve M. Kenney, a Senior Fellow at the Health Policy Center, Urban Institute, Washington, D. C, and her colleagues. According to the researchers, the uninsured children were mainly situated in California, Texas and Florida, which are the three most populous states.

Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services of the US, commented on the results saying that these revelations require new efforts to secure more funds that would ensure all the children in the US are being enrolled in an insurance program and are benefiting from it.

Sebelius added, "No child should have to skip a doctor's appointment or go without the medicine they need because their family can't pay".

The study also showed that the family incomes of 64% of the uninsured children eligible for Medicaid or CHIP were below the 133% of poverty. However, these children recorded higher rate of participation in Medicaid/CHIP than the children with families having a relatively higher income.