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Date: Tuesday, March 24, 1998	
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:  HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of California's Children's Health Insurance Program--the largest plan approved since President Clinton signed the program into law in August 1997.

California, the sixth state whose plan has won approval, hopes to insure up to 100,000 children who have no health insurance in the first year and 500,000 children within three years. The state will expand three existing programs--its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal; its Healthy Families program; and its Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) program, which is targeted at mothers and their infants.

As a result of today's approval, California could receive as much as $855 million in new funds for fiscal 1998.

"The approval of California's CHIP plan is the biggest step we have taken so far to meet President Clinton's goal of providing health insurance to children who need it," said Secretary Shalala. "Many of these children come from working families whose employers either don't offer coverage for children, or whose insurance is simply too expensive for family budgets."

The program is the result of the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP--the historic, bipartisan legislation signed last year by President Clinton. 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 yet not enough to afford private health insurance.

California's Medi-Cal will expand to include more children under age 19 who have family incomes at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), $16,450 for a family of four. California hopes to increase its Medi-Cal enrollment by 33,000 children in fiscal 1998. The state will expand AIM, which will cover infants up to age 1 from 200 percent to 250 percent of poverty. Through CHIP, California will also expand its Healthy Families program, which will provide coverage for children age 1-19 with family incomes from 100 percent of the FPL to 200 percent. California anticipates adding an extra 60,000 children in Healthy Families by the end of fiscal 1998.

"We are pleased that California is ready to move ahead in providing health care coverage that is so critical to a bright future for the state's children," said Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which runs the CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare programs.

In order for states to receive their share of the $24 billion, their plans for extending health insurance to targeted low-income children must be approved by HHS. The program allows states three options: designing a new children's health insurance program; expanding their current Medicaid programs; or a combination of both strategies.

"With CHIP we're doing more than putting an insurance card into parents' hands," said Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H., acting administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the agency working with HCFA and states to implement CHIP. "We're extending a hand to families, helping them enroll in the new program and get their children into high quality, comprehensive health care that will keep them healthy, learning and growing."

For the first year of the program, allotments totaling $4.3 billion are available to states whose plans are approved by HHS by Sept. 30, 1998. In addition to the six states which have been approved--Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio and California--these states have submitted plans: Missouri, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon, New Jersey, Idaho, Nevada, Vermont and Wisconsin.

"Securing access to decent health care is among the highest priorities of the President, the First Lady and myself," said Secretary Shalala. "Getting the CHIP program up and running in California is an important first step toward guaranteeing a healthy future for America's children."