Efforts to expand childrens coverage win support in legislatures
Back Page Briefs
May 31, 1997
While Congress continues to debate the best way to expand health insurance coverage for children, states around the country are finding varied ways to tackle the issue themselves. Among the many states that have taken action so far this year:
• Tennessee—Under an order by Gov. Don Sundquist, all children in the state up to age 19 are now eligible for the $3.3 billion TennCare program, regardless of income if they do not have access to insurance through their parents. It is estimated that 51,000 children from working families will apply for coverage.
• Florida—The legislature agreed to provide the much-imitated Healthy Kids program with an additional $3 million in general revenue, a 23% increase. With spending authority to seek federal matching funds, the program’s budget could total more than $35 million, allowing it to cover at least 60,000 more needy public school students. A $3 million grant program sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is now seeking to replicate aspects of the public-private partnership, which, in Florida, links health care to school enrollment.
• Texas—The Senate has joined the House in approving plans to establish the nonprofit Texas Healthy Kids Corp. to provide low-cost health insurance for uninsured children who don’t qualify for Medicaid.
• Arkansas—More than 85,000 additional children are expected to be covered under ARKids First, which expands Medicaid eligiblity to children 18 and younger living in families with incomes up to 200% of the poverty level.
Legislation to expand children’s coverage also is pending in a number of other states, including Colorado, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nevada.
Mary Jo O’Brien, a consultant with the Lewin Group and former health commissioner in Minnesota, says there also is a growing consensus among the states that they need to do a better job of enrolling children who are already eligible for coverage through Medicaid under existing rules.
Efforts to expand childrens coverage win support in legislatures
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