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Date: Monday, March 23, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office(202) 690-6145
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.
"Approving state plans is a strong step toward this Administration's goal of providing 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."
Ohio, which could receive nearly $116 million in new funds for fiscal 1998, will expand coverage to as many as 133,000 uninsured children in its state by 1999. The state intends to accomplish this by expanding eligibility for its existing Medicaid program. Currently, Ohio covers 557,000 Medicaid children up to age 19. Under CHIP, the state will expand Medicaid eligibility to cover children up to age 19 whose families have incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level ($16, 450 for a family of four).
"We are pleased that Ohio 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, child health 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 five states which have been approved--Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio--the following states have submitted plans: Missouri, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Wisconsin for a total of 22 plans received.
"Securing access to quality health care is one of the highest priorities for the President, the First Lady and myself," said Secretary Shalala. "Getting the CHIP program up and running in these five States represents an important and exciting step toward guaranteeing a healthy future for America's children."