Families USA, a nonpartisan organization representing healthcare consumers, reported that the number of American children without health insurance declined by about 6 percent last year. Reports indicated that more than 11% of children nationwide, or about one in nine, had no health coverage in 2007. It found the reason to be increase in child poverty rate, leading to more children qualifying for government-sponsored insurance.

More than half a million children gained health insurance between 2006 and 2007 - nearly the same number of children in families whose income declined to below the federal poverty level. The report also found that most uninsured children - 88.2% - belong to families with at least one parent working, and more than half live in two-parent households.

According to the report, the worsening economic situation has added new urgency to the need to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) - a program jointly financed by the state and federal governments to provide health insurance for about seven million low-income children. The program is up for reauthorization in the spring, when Congress is likely to begin debating proposals for large-scale health reform.

Based on three years of Census data, 2005-2007, Massachusetts had the lowest rate of uninsured children in the country - just 4.6 percent - compared with a national median of 9.2 percent during that period.

David Lemmon, communications director for Families USA, said: "Massachusetts is number one in the rate of insured kids . . . so it's obviously doing something right."