More children gaining insurance coverage
May 1, 1998 2 minutes read
More children gaining insurance coverage
More of the children seeking care at the nation's hospitals will be insured this year as states continue to sign up for participation in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIP was signed into law last year by President Clinton.
Nationally, the law allocates $24 billion over the next five years to help states expand health insurance to children whose families earn too much for traditional Medicaid but not enough to afford private health insurance.
Michigan joined the CHIP program in April, with federal approval of its MIChild plan for children's health insurance. MIChild provides health coverage for thousands of uninsured children, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, DC. The state could receive as much as $92 million this year in new funds, which state officials will use to insure as many as 120,000 new children by the end of fiscal year 2000.
Nine states join programMichigan is the ninth state to have its plan approved in the six months since CHIP funds became available. Together, these nine states anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than 1 million currently uninsured children within the next three years.
In Michigan, comprehensive health care coverage will be provided to all children under age 19 whose families have incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level - currently estimated at $16,450 for a family of four. The benefit package mirrors the state employees' plan and is administered by multiple managed care providers. MIChild will not impose co-payments on families with incomes at or below 150% of the poverty level. Some co-payments will apply for families with incomes between 151% and 200%.
CHIP gives states three options for devising a plan to cover uninsured children: designing a new children's health insurance program, expanding current Medicaid programs, or combining both strategies. HHS must approve each state's plan before CHIP funds become available.
For the first year of the program, allotments totaling $4.3 billion are available to HHS-approved states by Sept. 30, 1998.
Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York, and Michigan have been approved.
The following states and Puerto Rico have submitted plans: Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon, New Jersey, Idaho, Nevada, Vermont, Wisconsin, Texas, and Utah.
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