For a state and nation already on notice that our long-term health is deteriorating, news at the beginning of this week sounded disturbing wakeup calls.

The health of millennials is worse than the Generation Xers that they follow; and a 40 percent increase in uninsured rates for the youngest Ohioans — infants to preschoolers — could have long-term consequences not only for their health but also their brain development and overall well-being.

(…) It was already distressing when the Journal of the American Medical Association reported late last year that Ohio was one of four states with especially high numbers of “excess deaths” — cases in which more people died than would have been expected if life expectancy rates remained stable. In fact, life expectancy in the United States has declined for three years in a row through 2017, the most recent year for which rates are available.

(…) For the first time since federal health care reform was enacted with the Affordable Care Act in 2010, more than 1 million children under age 6 across the country did not have access to health coverage as their uninsured rate, which had been declining, rose from 3.8% in 2016 to 4.3% in 2018.

(…) The Dispatch is glad to see Gov. Mike DeWine was appropriately dismayed at the Georgetown findings and asked state officials to identify ways to reduce any bureaucratic barriers for uninsured children to access coverage through Medicaid. That’s the least we should do.

—The Columbus Dispatch