Ford added pitching-coach du-
ties in 1964, when Berra became
the manager and Houk was pro-
moted to general manager. But
pitching against the St. Louis Car-
dinals in the World Series opener,
he developed numbness in his left
hand and departed in the sixth in-
ning.
He underwent surgery in No-
vember for a blocked artery, but
that procedure was a temporary
solution, and he continued to ex-
perience circulatory problems
pitching in cool weather the next
season. He lost his pitching-coach
job when Johnny Keane, formerly
the St. Louis Cardinals’ manager,
took over from Berra.
Ford had a 16-13 record in 1965,
but he was plagued by arm prob-
lems in 1966. He had a 2-5 record
when he underwent bypass
surgery in August to provide a
permanent cure for his circula-
tory problem. But he also had a
bad elbow, and he retired in May
1967 after going 2-4.
Ford had an earned run aver-
age below 3.00 in 11 separate sea-
sons and pitched 45 shutouts. He
was an eight-time All-Star and
posted the American League’s
lowest earned run average in 1956
and 1958. He led the league in vic-
tories three times (1955, 1961 and
1963), and he had the best winning
percentage three times (1956, 1961
and 1963).
He had a career record of 236-
106 with a 2.75 earned run aver-
age.
Ford’s survivors include his
wife, Joan (Foran)
Ford; their son Eddie;
their daughter, Sally
Ann Clancy; and
grandchildren. An-
other son, Tommy,
died in 1999.
After his pitching
days, Ford served
briefly as the Yankees’
first-base coach and
again as pitching
coach. The Yankees
retired his No. 16 in
1974, shortly before he
was inducted into the
Hall of Fame. He ap-
peared at Yankee
spring training camps
after that as a pitching
instructor.
Ford was on hand in
September 2008 when
the Yankees played
their final game at the
old Stadium. He joined
with Don Larsen, fa-
mous for pitching a
perfect game in the
World Series, in scooping dirt
from the pitchers’ mound in a pre-
game ceremony and then joined
with Berra to reminisce with the
ESPN broadcasters Jon Miller
and Joe Morgan. (Larsen died in
January at 90.)
Ford and Berra reprised their
cameos as the favorite old-time
Yankees when they helped Man-
ager Joe Girardi distribute World
Series championship rings to Yan-
kee players at the team’s 2010
home opener.But the biggest day of the retire-
ment years had come on Aug. 20,
2000, when it was Whitey Ford
Day at Yankee Stadium. Ford’s
No. 16 was imprinted near the first
and third-base foul lines, and for-
mer teammates paid tribute.
“I’ve been a Yankee for 53
years,” he said then, “and I’ll be a
Yankee forever.”ERNIE SISTO/THE NEW YORK TIMESAs Mickey
Mantle watched
from the dugout
steps, Ford
waved to the
Stadium crowd
as he an-
nounced his
retirement in
1967.ASSOCIATED PRESSTHE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2020 Y A23
The share of children with
health coverage in the United
States fell for the third consecu-
tive year in 2019, according to
census data, after decades of
increases.
The decline occurred during a
period of economic growth —
before the coronavirus pandemic
caused broad job losses that
might have cost many more
Americans their health insur-
ance.
A report Friday by the George-
town Center for Children and
Families found that the ranks of
uninsured children grew the
most in Texas and Florida, and
that Latino children were dispro-
portionately affected. Nationally,
the number of children without
health insurance rose by 320,000
last year alone, to a total of
nearly 4.4 million children, the
report found.
“What’s so troubling about this
data is we were making so much
progress as a country,” said Joan
Alker, the center’s executive
director and an author of the
report. “And now that progress is
clearly reversing.”
The picture since the start of
the pandemic is less clear. Many
families have lost jobs that came
with health coverage, which
could increase the number of
children without insurance. But
national enrollment in Medicaid
and the Children’s Health Insur-
ance Program (CHIP) has also
swelled, aided by temporary
policies to prevent families from
losing coverage during the emer-
gency. More current estimates
for the uninsured rates among
children will take time.
In recent years, falling enroll-
ment in Medicaid and CHIP
drove the overall changes, ac-
cording to the report. Although
those programs for low- and
middle-income children are
primarily managed by state
governments, Trump administra-
tion policies could be playing a
role: The administration has
encouraged states to check eligi-
bility more often, which advoca-
cy groups say has caused many
families to lose coverage because
of paperwork errors and missed
deadlines.
And the administration’s poli-
cies on immigrant families have
caused some to end enrollment
for their children even though
they are eligible citizens, accord-
ing to child welfare groups in
several states with the largest
drops. In particular, the “public
charge” rule makes it harder for
immigrants to be approved for
green cards if they have received
public benefits or are deemed
likely to receive them in the
future.
“They were coming to me
saying: ‘Please close my case. I
don’t want to get into any trou-
ble,’ ” said Graciela Camarena,
outreach program director in the
Rio Grande Valley for the Texas
branch of the Children’s Defense
Fund, a group that helps enroll
children in health coverage. Ms.
Camarena said most clients
would not be affected by the
public charge policy if they
signed up their children, but
news of the rule had produced
widespread concern.
The public charge policy was
completed last summer but has
been put into effect unevenly. For
months, its enforcement was
paused in several states by a
court order. More recently, it has
been softened because of the
public health emergency related
to the coronavirus. Nevertheless,
Latino children saw a dispropor-
tionate drop in coverage through
2019, according to the George-
town report, an indication that
their families were reacting to
the policy.
The public charge rule does
not take into consideration bene-
fits used by citizen children. But
Alison Yager, deputy executive
director of the Florida Health
Justice Project, said the pan-
demic had made it hard for her
nonprofit organization to get that
fact and other accurate informa-
tion about the public charge rule
to worried families.
“It’s significantly hampering
education efforts,” Ms. Yagersaid. “It seems to be harder to
spread accurate information than
misinformation once it has taken
hold.”
A large body of evidence has
shown that children’s health
insurance coverage has long-
term benefits for children and
their families, improving health
outcomes, educational attain-
ment and even adult earnings.
Last year, some state and
federal officials suggested it was
good news that more than a
million children were dropped
from Medicaid and CHIP enroll-
ment from December 2017 to
June 2019, arguing that more
Americans were getting cover-
age from employers in an im-
proving economy. But census
data seems to counter the notion
that many families gained em-
ployer insurance: The rate of
uninsured children increased in
some states with declining Med-
icaid and CHIP enrollment, in-
cluding Tennessee, Texas, Idaho
and Utah. The 2019 data shows
that trend has continued for
another year.
The Georgetown report found
that the states with the biggest
2019 increases in the uninsured
rate among children — all more
than 1.5 percentage points —
were South Dakota, Texas, Utah,
Arkansas, Missouri, Delaware,
Arizona and South Carolina.
More than half of uninsured
children live in the South, where
most of the states have declined
to expand Medicaid under the
Affordable Care Act. Ms. Yager
said Florida’s refusal to expandMedicaid had kept many children
uninsured, too, along with low-
income adults.
She said of expanding Medic-
aid: “That would bring a whole
lot of families into Medicaid
coverage who are kind of hang-
ing out there in the coverage gap.
We know that in general, kids of
insured parents are more likely
to be insured themselves.”
According to the report, the
uninsured rate in 2019 for chil-
dren living in states that had not
expanded Medicaid was 8.1 per-
cent. That was almost double the
rate (4.2 percent) in states that
had expanded.
In all, Medicaid and CHIP
cover about 36 million children;
that is nearly half the total num-
ber of children in the United
States.
It is still unclear precisely how
the pandemic has changed the
number of uninsured children.
The Urban Institute has estimat-
ed that 2.9 million people young-
er than 65 will become uninsured
by the end of this year as a result
of the recession, including
300,000 children.
Child welfare groups say they
are worried that even though
recent enrollment declines ap-
pear to be reversing, many fam-
ilies who have recently lost their
employer-based insurance may
be unaware they can sign up for
public benefits.
It will be harder for children
who are already enrolled to lose
Medicaid, though, because under
the emergency funding bill that
Congress passed in the spring,
states cannot terminate people’s
Medicaid coverage or tighten
eligibility rules during the public
health crisis.
Preliminary data from the
Centers for Medicare and Medic-
aid Services (C.M.S.) shows that
Medicaid and CHIP enrollment
grew by 1.4 million children
between February and June,
more than the programs lost in
the previous two years.
A spokeswoman for C.M.S.
said the agency was “committed
to ensuring that eligible children
are enrolled and retained in
coverage,” adding that it had
provided $48 million in grants for
outreach and enrollment efforts
last year.As Economy Boomed,
More Children Lacked
Insurance Last Year
By MARGOT SANGER-KATZ
and ABBY GOODNOUGHThe ranks of uninsured children grew the most in Texas and
Florida, with Latinos, especially immigrants, affected the most.ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESThe Upshot provides news,
analysis and graphics about
politics, policy and everyday life.
nytimes.com/upshotMore obituaries appear on
Page B11.