PORTLAND (AP) - About 118,000 Oregon children lack health insurance, the highest total in the past decade, according to a newspaper's survey.

The Oregonian found that one in eight Oregon children under the age of 19 is uninsured, even though the state Medicaid program for low-income children now covers more kids than ever before.

Driving the disparity is that fewer children these days are covered by private insurance, since many low-wage workers cannot afford to buy family health insurance through their employer, or the free market.

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

More than half have at least one parent with a job, and most aren't poor by the federal government's 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.

“Family health coverage is increasingly unaffordable,” says Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of the state Department of Human Services.

“Despite improvement in the economy, we are seeing more kids turning to the state for help.”

Recent studies suggest that uninsured children are less likely to get preventive care such as immunizations, dental appointments and vision checkups. They also are half as likely as other children to have seen a doctor in the previous year, five times as likely to report having an unmet medical need and three times as likely to use a hospital emergency room for regular care.

Oregon's eligibility rules on government-paid insurance for children are tougher than those of most other states.

Applicant family must have no more than $10,000 in financial assets, not counting a home or a vehicle.

And the state sets its income eligibility limit at less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, while some other states go as high as 300 percent.

Even so, a state survey found that half of the uninsured children in Oregon - more than 50,000 - are eligible for public coverage with the Oregon Health Plan or CHIP, but are not enrolled.

That's partially because it is not possible to apply online, and some applicants must provide proof of income for the previous four months, requiring as many as 16 weekly pay stubs as documentation.

Oregon requires families to reapply every six months, sooner than many states.

A statewide study concluded in January that the state should simplify the rules and extend re-enrollment from six to 12 months.

But outreach could worsen the chronic budget problems of the Department of Human Services. The agency's latest budget estimate projects a $140 million gap through mid-2007.

Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is running for re-election, has pledged to ensure health coverage for every child in Oregon, paid for with an unspecified increase in the state's tobacco tax.

He has asked the state Medicaid Advisory Committee to submit recommendations for his Healthy Kids Plan by mid-May.

Based on current spending on children, coverage for an additional 118,000 kids might add about $110 million to the two-year budget, according to Erinn Kelley-Siel, Kulongoski's health policy adviser.