PORTLAND (AP) — With health care costs continuing to soar, some employers have stopped offering family coverage or started requiring workers to pay a larger share of the premium.

That partly explains why a quarter of the nation’s uninsured children have at least one parent with health coverage, according to a study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University.

The study found that such families earn too much to qualify for government help, but don’t make enough to afford private insurance for the entire family. Researchers estimate that 2.4 million U.S. children go uninsured in households where at least one parent has coverage.

“These are working families,” Dr. Jennifer DeVoe, a family physician who led the study. “The vast majority — nearly 90 percent — have private coverage. They have access to health care; they just can’t afford to cover their kids.”

The findings appear in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association. The study was based on an analysis of federal health survey statistics.

The rising cost of health care is driving families out of the market, said Dr. Jeanene Smith, head of the Oregon Health Policy and Research.

“It’s an affordability issue — for the employer, who would like to offer coverage to employees but can’t afford to, and the family who can’t afford to take up what the employer no longer pays,” she said in an interview with The Oregonian newspaper.

State and federal health policy has focused on trying to ensure that children in poor families get coverage. The federal government, for example, spends billions each year on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for children in families who are low-income but above the poverty line.

Eligibility varies by state. Oregon covers children in families with incomes up to 185 percent of the poverty level, or roughly $39,000 a year for a family of four.

Families who make more than that sometimes have enough money for basic children’s coverage, but can’t afford the out-of-pocket co-pays and deductibles. And the policies exclude some illnesses.

DeVoe said families may skip such coverage in favor of paying out of pocket for what the children are certain to need, such as dental visits and immunizations.

“A lot of people said they could have scraped together enough to pay for the children’s coverage, but it cost too much to use it,” she said.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com