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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Survey: Disparities in Health Coverage For Minnesota Kids

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Despite Minnesota's ranking as third in the nation in the percentage of people who have health insurance, a new survey indicates some disparities for kids in the state.

The U.S. Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey looked closely at health insurance coverage for the first time in 2008. Overall, just 8.7 percent of Minnesotans, just over one in 12, don't have health insurance, but that's not true everywhere; there are pockets across the state where children have less coverage than adults.

Glenda Cartney, a registered nurse, says that despite huge improvements in technology, the health care system has deteriorated. Recently, four out of 10 patients in her ward were there because they couldn't afford their medications.

"What that does, you know, it just drives our health care costs up because here's somebody that's not insured, no longer can take his medications, and is back in for more procedures. That just saddens me."

Nearly one in six people in Minneapolis lacks health insurance coverage, almost twice the state average. St. Paul and Duluth fared slightly better, with one of 16 uninsured, though one child in eight in Duluth has no health insurance.

Dr. Mark Liebow of the Mayo Clinic says there's a lot of resistance to health care reform, but first and foremost, we need to insure the uninsured.

"Two percent of all the deaths in the United States each year are due to uninsurance, disease that isn't getting treated or isn't getting treated right, because people don't have insurance."

Dr. Liebow said he hopes that health care reform will also mean changing the health insurance market and bettering the delivery system. The American Community Survey data also show about six in every seven Minnesotans with health insurance are covered by private plans, rather than public health insurance, a higher rate than the rest of the country.

Opponents of major health care reform say current reform proposals are too expensive, and are examples of an increasing government role in Americans' lives.

For survey information go to www.census.gov


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