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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of an amendment to expand Florida's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

In March, HHS approved Florida's CHIP plan, which expanded Medicaid to children in families earning up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. The original plan also expanded Florida's Healthy Kids program, a comprehensive program that was piloted in 20 counties, to additional counties.

The amendment approved today, together with Florida's original CHIP plan, will cover nearly 176,000 children by July 1, 1999. This amendment creates the Florida Kidcare Program, which consists of:

• Expanding the Healthy Kids program statewide and to children through age 18 in families with incomes up to 200 percent
• of the federal poverty level. Children must be enrolled in school to qualify for Florida's Healthy Kids program. Nearly 113,000 children will be enrolled in Healthy Kids;
• Creating the MediKids program to provide coverage for children age 0-5. MediKids uses the Medicaid benefit package and has periodic open enrollment seasons. Nearly 23,000 children will be enrolled in MediKids;
• Creating the Children's Medical Services Network (CMS) for children age 0-18 with special needs. Approximately 10,000 children will be enrolled in CMS; and,
• Expanding Medicaid to cover children ages 15-19 to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. About 30,000 children are currently covered under the Medicaid expansion.

Florida could receive as much as $270 million in new funds 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. Florida -- like all states with CHIP plans - will receive federal matching funds for actual expenditures on insuring children.

Florida's amendment, together with the 35 CHIP plans already approved, is expected to provide health insurance coverage for more than two million currently uninsured children within the next three years.

"We are pleased to see Florida greatly expanding the reach of its CHIP program," Secretary Shalala said. "The Clinton Administration and the states are working closely together to give children the health care they need to live longer, healthier lives."

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.

Florida families with children enrolled in the MediKids and CMS programs will pay premiums that will range from $5 to $15 per month, but no copayments for medical services will be charged. Other families in the Healthy Kids plan will pay premiums and copayments for some services. Under the CHIP statute, no family can be charged more than five percent of its annual income.

"The Florida amendment is evidence of the success of the CHIP program and that states are eager to meet the needs of this vulnerable population," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which administers CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare. "It is through efforts like this 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 35 plans 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, Oregon, Texas, Idaho, Puerto Rico, Indiana, Utah, North Carolina, Minnesota, Maryland, Arkansas, Nebraska, Maine, Nevada, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Delaware and Georgia -- these states have submitted plans: Tennessee, Montana, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, the Virgin Islands, North Dakota, Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alaska.