PORTLAND (AP) — A new report says the percentage of Maine children without health care coverage grew 50 percent in Maine during a five-year period that coincided with tightened Medicaid eligibility guidelines and the governor’s decision not to expand Medicaid.

Neither of those actions by the LePage administration affected coverage for children, but child welfare advocates believe children nonetheless went off the Medicaid rolls when their parents lost coverage.

The report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation on Tuesday indicates Maine and North Dakota were the only states to see increasing numbers of children without insurance from 2010 to 2015. The report contends 14,000 Maine children were without coverage.

The governor’s office contends it’s the parents’ responsibility, not the state’s, to ensure children are receiving health care for which they’re eligible.

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