PORTLAND — More than a year after voters rejected a tobacco-tax-funded children’s health care plan, a new national report says the number of uninsured Oregon children continue to climb, and that the tough economy may push it higher.

Families USA, an affordable health care advocacy group, released a study Tuesday based on new Census data that shows about 107,000 Oregon children are uninsured — about 11.7 percent.

Although that percentage is consistent with previous years, the group says the total has grown by 2,400.

Oregon’s political leaders have pledged to revisit the issue during the 2009 legislative session, despite a bleak-looking budget year.

“You can’t say to people ’Just put your health on hold,”’ Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney said. “Cost and accessibility are big issues. They’re right up there with having a job and being able to pay the bills.”

Legislative leaders are still working on the specifics of their health care proposal, whether it might include a tobacco tax or an increase elsewhere. Either way, Courtney doesn’t expect them to go after the 84-cent per pack increase they asked for in 2007.

“I think we probably overreached last time,” Courtney said.

In 2007, legislators could not agree on how to fund the program, so, as a last resort, Democrats kicked it to Oregon voters who summarily rejected the offer.

Oregon is the 18th-highest state in percentage of children without insurance.

About 67 percent of Oregon’s uninsured children come from families with at least one parent who works full time, year round, according to the study.

“I’ll let rankings fall where they will,” Courtney said. “I think Oregon should take care of their children, and that’s the bottom line. And I think Oregonians believe that.”

Gov. Ted Kulongoski has also made insuring Oregon’s children one of his top goals for the upcoming session. At a speech in late October, he called the failure to pass the legislation in Salem, the outstanding “critical issue” of the 2007 Legislature.

“He’s not going to let tobacco companies win on this one,” said Anna Richter Taylor, a spokeswoman for the governor. “It’s a moral obligation.”

Children’s health care in the form of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, will likely take center stage in the new Congress. SCHIP, which funded 63,000 Oregon children in 2007, is to expire at the end of March.

After failing to get a more robust SCHIP program by President Bush last year, the new Congress, said Senator-elect Jeff Merkley, will likely see a different result.

“I expect that we will be able to pass a SCHIP program very similar to the one Bush vetoed,” Merkley said. “I think it’s absolutely something that must change.”

Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA, said he hoped the new Congress and president would be “much more inclined for the first time in a long time, to really undertake a meaningful health care debate.”

“I think 2009 augers well for meaningful health care reform.”

The need would be greater than before, Pollack said, if only for the worsening economy. He said the downturn would push people out of jobs, and few people could afford to pay for their own insurance.