12.29.11 Louisiana is among 23 states receiving a bonus payment to defray the cost of providing children with health coverage.

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that Louisiana will receive $1.9 million designed to lower the state’s costs for covering more children.

“We are proud to say that, today, fewer than 5 percent of our state’s children do not have health-care coverage. We will continue to make eligibility and enrollment a priority,” Bruce Greenstein, secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals, said in a prepared statement.