WASHINGTON, D.C. – As many states struggle to secure affordable coverage for uninsured children, Energy and Commerce Committee Vice Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) highlighted the restrictions placed on states during a Subcommittee on Health hearing entitled, “Covering Uninsured Kids: Reversing Progress Already Made.” DeGette focused on the Administration’s stubborn refusal to expand health care coverage for millions of low-income children despite the bipartisan work of Congress and the previous Administration to provide state-based solutions.

“The children’s health insurance program was created in 1997 in a bipartisan effort, under a Democratic President and Republican-controlled Congress, to find state-based solutions to the problem of providing health care for low-income children,” said DeGette. “Our goal was to provide additional resources for states to cover more kids who needed health care coverage. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has used it as a political football to score points at the expense of millions of low-income children.”

Despite two bipartisan compromise State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bills passing Congress, President George W. Bush has blocked progress by vetoing both of them. If the current trends continue of increasing premiums for employer-based coverage, more children will join the ranks of the uninsured while the Bush Administration places additional barriers to health care for low-income children in valuable programs such as SCHIP and Medicaid.

“The whole reason we give states flexibility in SCHIP and Medicaid is because they craft programs that best meet the needs of their own populations. However, the Bush Administration continues to hand down directives tying the hands of our states – a number of recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations hinder state flexibility.  For example, an August 17th directive limits states’ ability to cover children in families above 250% of the federal poverty level.  Although my state of Colorado does not currently cover children above this level, we have set the goal of covering all uninsured children by the end of 2010.  Without the flexibility to cover children above 250% of the poverty level, it is unlikely that we can make this a reality.”

The August 2007 directive mandates that in order to expand coverage levels above 250% of the federal poverty level, states must meet a 95% participation rate for children below 250% of the federal poverty level.  This standard is completely unattainable and unrealistic.  CMS does not provide guidance for states on to how to meet such standards or even what data will be used to calculate a 95% compliance rate. The CMS rule is expected to go into effect in May 2008.