1. Mahalo for Helping Insure a Multitude of Children! Med-QUEST recently reissued its enrollment data prior to 2004. Since Hawaii Covering Kids began in 1999, there has been a net result of 26,083 children and youth enrolled in QUEST and Medicaid programs: 15,263 in the expansion State Children's Health Insurance Program, 7,066 in regular QUEST, 3,110 in the Immigrant Children's Program, and 644 in regular Medicaid Fee-for-Service. To download the revised PDF files, go to the data page of our web site. Furthermore, there are currently 971 children and youth enrolled in the low-cost HMSA Children's Plan. This wonderful news shows the hard work of our community, federal, and state partners focused on mutual outreach, simplification, and coordination goals. 2. Hawaii Covering Kids in the News A recent Honolulu Advertiser newspaper article, "Healthcare for more children is common goal," included information on our project. 3. Hawaii Health Care Task Force This groupwas established pursuant to Act 223 Session Laws of Hawaii 2005 and is charged with developing a plan to provide health insurance for Hawaii residents. In December, an interim "Report of the Hawaii Health Care Task Force" was submitted to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner for transmittal to the governor and the legislature. 4. Hawaii's New FMAP The federal matches for our Medicaid programs from 1 October 2005 to 30 September 2006 increased slightly: * Regular Medicaid: 58.81% * Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP): 71.17% 5. State Researchers Find 117,000 Oregon Children Lack Health Insurance MedfordNews.com--Approximately 117,000 children in Oregon are without health insurance. And if recent trends hold true, more kids each year will grow up without health care insurance, which translates into inadequate or no health care. The percentage of children without health insurance has risen from 10.1% in 2002 to 12.3% in 2004.