A growing number of Utah kids from poor working families are losing their health insurance, underscoring the importance of reauthorizing and funding the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), policy experts and a congressional representative said Wednesday.

A new report by Families USA shows the number of uninsured children in the state increased by 18,500 -- 21 percent -- between the three-year period 2003-2005 and the three-year period 2005-2007, and is likely to continue to grow as the mounting financial crisis drives up unemployment rates.

About 107,000 Utah kids, or 12.8 percent, are now uninsured --- giving the Beehive State the 10th- highest percentage of uninsured children in the country, reports Families USA, which contracted with the U.S. Census Bureau to get the state-specific data.

"What is really noteworthy is the overwhelming majority of these children are in working families -- these are not families seeking handouts or on welfare," said Ron Pollock, executive director of Families USA, noting that 10 out of 11 uninsured children have at least one working parent.

However, as health insurance premiums skyrocket -- an earlier Families USA report showed over the past eight years health insurance premiums rose by 84.7 percent in the state -- fewer employers are offering health insurance coverage. Those families who do have access to an employer-sponsored plan may not be able to afford it.

Last year, Congress debated and passed two pieces of legislation by overwhelming bipartisan margins that would have reduced the number of uninsured children by almost half, but President Bush vetoed both. Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson said he is confident the new Congress and President-elect Barack Obama will reauthorize the CHIP program before it expires in March. Meanwhile, Matheson said, Utah's own Legislature needs to do more.

The state's poor ranking for uninsured children "is something that should concern us all and calls into question the role of our state and whether our Legislature is adequately funding" the program, Matheson said.

But more money may be hard to come by, said Lincoln Nehring, Medicaid policy director for the Utah Health Policy Project. The tanking economy has hit the state hard. Medicaid, for instance, has seen its rolls swell by 13,000 people -- including 3,000 within the past month alone -- and is now staring down a $20 million shortfall.

"At the local level, we are working hard to find ways to cover more of Utah children," he said, but CHIP "hasn't been expanded to the point where it meets all Utahns' needs." While many states cover families living at up to 250 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, for example, Utah only covers up to 200 percent of the FDL.

Part of the solution may be simply getting more children enrolled: 55.5 percent of uninsured Utah kids are likely eligible for CHIP but aren't signed up.

Lawmakers last year passed two bills, one that opened CHIP to year-round enrollment and another that helps the Department of Workforce Services identify potentially CHIP-eligible families when they apply for free or reduced-price school lunches. Even so, Nehring said, enrollment still has not increased as much as expected.

"There is a lot of work to be done here," he said.

lrosetta@sltrib.com