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Date: Friday, May 29, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145
HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of Massachusetts' plan for children's health insurance, which will provide health coverage for thousands of uninsured children.
Massachusetts could receive as much as $43 million this year in new funds, which state officials will use to expand the state Medicaid program and create a separate Family Assistance Plan. With its federal allotment, the state hopes to bring annual enrollment in the program to nearly 51,000 children.
The federal Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, is the result of 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.
Massachusetts is the 16th state to have its plan approved in the nine months since CHIP funds became available. Together, these --- 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," said Secretary Shalala. "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.
Massachusetts will provide the state's regular Medicaid benefit package to the children newly enrolled with CHIP funds. The eligibility level for Medicaid will be increased from the current 133 percent of poverty to children in families with incomes of up to 150 percent of poverty. The state will also use its CHIP funds to create the Family Assistance Plan for children with family incomes between 150-200 percent of poverty (the federal poverty level is $16,450 for a family of four). Uninsured children with family incomes over 150 percent of poverty will be eligible for either a "direct coverage option" or for financial assistance for families to purchase dependent coverage through their employers, the so-called "premium assistance option."
The Family Assistance Program will provide coverage equivalent to the insurance plan offered to federal employees in the state . These families will pay a monthly premium of $10 per child with a family maximum of $30 per month.
"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 runs the CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare programs. "It is through those efforts that we will realize the Administration's goal of providing health insurance to children 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 16 states which have been approved--Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, Rhode Island, Oklahoma and Massachusetts--these states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have submitted plans: Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Vermont, Wisconsin, Texas, Utah, Montana, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Arkansas, North Carolina, Nebraska, Maine and New Mexico.