The 50-state rush to offer health insurance to the children of the working poor is a commendable change from previous years of neglect. Maine can take advantage of the new federal money gusher for children’s health by following a couple of ideas presented at a conference this week in Augusta.

Consumers for Affordable Health Care, a Maine group, brought in various experts to explain the nuts and bolts of expanding health care coverage. The problem of uninsured kids has worsened in recent years for at least two reasons: the state’s shift from manufacturing to service-related jobs has not only eroded paychecks, it has washed away private health insurance for many families who are unable to pay hundreds of dollars a month to purchase their own policies; and welfare reform, which moves people off state dependence can also move them off Medicaid.

States and the federal government are responding now, in part, because there is a real risk that the number of uninsured children will continue to rise. The implications are clear: sicker children in a country with abundant medical services; children performing less well in school because of ill health; and the repeated cycle of state dependence.

Jocelyn Guyer of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington offered some motivating thoughts on the approximately 36,000 uninsured children in Maine. Most importantly, she estimated that one-third of the uninsured children already were eligible for Medicaid but were not enrolled in the program.

That clearly calls for changes in the way Medicaid is presented to the public: the impression is that only the absolutely destitute qualify for Medicaid, but this is not the case. A new program might cover children in families up to 200 percent of the poverty line. The public perception of Medicaid will have to change and the application to join made easier if these working families are to be attracted to the program.

Further, Ms. Guyer argues, there are several good reasons to prefer an expanded Medicaid program over creating a new program. Among the more important is that it could be less expensive to run, thereby reserving more money for direct health care. It avoids a two-tier system of one for poorer children and one for those a little better off. And using Medicaid would make Maine eligible for an enhanced federal matching rate of 3-to-1. For the long-term, qualifying Maine children under Medicaid now protects them in the event Congress loses interest in health insurance a few years from now and cuts the separate funding.

Those are good arguments, but it remains for the state to find a way to attract the qualified uninsured to Medicaid. For both the health of Maine children and the quality of an expanded health program, it is a challenge well worth undertaking.