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Date: Monday, June 15, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145
HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of Idaho's plan to expand health coverage for thousands of uninsured children through the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Idaho could receive as much as $15.8 million in new funds for Fiscal Year 1998 under the federal CHIP program -- the historic, bipartisan legislation signed last year by President Clinton. The CHIP 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. Idaho officials estimate they will insure nearly 5,000 more children with their CHIP allotment.
Idaho is the twentieth state to have its plan approved in the nine months since CHIP funds have been available. Together, these 20 states anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than one million currently uninsured children within the next three years.
"Too many working parents can't afford health care for their children, and too many children are at risk," Secretary Shalala said. "The Clinton Administration and the states are working together to give children the health care they need to live longer, healthier lives. That's good for all of us."
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 a combination of both strategies. HHS must approve each state's plan before CHIP funds become available.
Idaho will use its new allocation to expand insurance coverage to children through the state's Medicaid program. The program will expand eligibility to children up to age 19 in families with incomes up to 160 percent of the federal poverty level (the federal poverty level is $16,450 for a family of four). Due to state legislation, the income threshold will become 150 percent of the federal poverty level effective July 1, 1998. The state has formed a task force to study ways of further expanding Idaho's CHIP program. States can amend their original CHIP plans, but amendments must be approved by HHS.
Children in the Medicaid expansion population will receive the state's standard Medicaid benefit package, which includes inpatient and outpatient hospital services, inpatient psychiatric care, physician services, dental services, home health services, lab services and prescription drugs.
"The success of the CHIP program has shown an inspiring amount of cooperation between the federal government and the states," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which administers CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare. "It is through those efforts that we will realize the Administration's goal of providing health insurance to those who need it."
"We're pulling together to help hard-working, low-income parents give their kids the same kind of high quality health care others take for granted," said Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H., administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the agency working with HCFA and states to implement CHIP. "Free or low-cost health insurance is what families need to ensure their kids can grow up strong and healthy."
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, 1999. In addition to the 20 states which have been approved -- Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Texas, Oregon and Idaho -- these plans have been submitted: Tennessee, Nevada, Vermont, Puerto Rico, Utah, Minnesota, Montana, Indiana, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Maine, New Hampshire, Georgia, Iowa, South Dakota and Kentucky.