U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America
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U.S. Department of Health & Human Services |
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Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America |
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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, June 28, 2001 |
Contact: | CMS Press Office (202) 690-6145 |
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced approval of a California plan to allow children, once approved, to remain on the state's Medicaid program for one year, regardless of changes in family circumstance.
Many states reexamine a family's eligibility for Medicaid many times during the year. The change will allow for greater continuity of care for families whose income may fluctuate during the year causing the children to be only sporadically eligible for health insurance. Continuous eligibility will double the average length of time children are enrolled in a health care plan. Some 2.6 million children are enrolled in California's plan-called MediCal. This change will result in an additional 390,000 children remaining eligible each month.
"California is taking steps to protect children from losing health coverage immediately if their parents get a small pay raise," Secretary Thompson said. "This change protects eligible children by providing a full year of continuous MediCal coverage even when a family's financial circumstances fluctuate during the year."
With this approval, children under the age of 19 will remain eligible for 12 months regardless of increases in family income, resources or changes in family structure. This, together with other recent changes, will bring the enrollment in MediCal to almost 6 million for 2001-2002.
Medicaid is a state-federal partnership that pays for health and long-term care services to certain low-income individuals, including children, the elderly and people with disabilities. States and the federal government share the cost of the program, and each state administers its Medicaid program. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly known as the Health Care Financing Administration, is the HHS agency that administers the Medicaid program.