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State officials expect today's approved amendment to provide health insurance to an additional 12,000 children, covering a total of 45,000 children by September 2000.

Mississippi is eligible to receive as much as $55 million in new funds for fiscal year 1999. SCHIP is historic, bipartisan legislation signed in 1997 by President Clinton. The SCHIP law appropriates $24 billion over 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. Mississippi, like all states with SCHIP plans, will receive federal matching funds only for actual expenditures to insure children.

Together, the 56 state and territorial SCHIP plans anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than 2.6 million currently uninsured children over three years.

"The Clinton Administration and the states are working together to give children the health care they need to live longer, healthier lives," said Secretary Shalala. "It's a pleasure to approve Mississippi's amendment and I look forward to more states expanding their programs in the future."

SCHIP 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 any amendment to a state's SCHIP program.

Mississippi's initial SCHIP plan, a Medicaid expansion, was approved by Secretary Shalala on March 31, 1997. In February 1999, the state had an amendment approved that created a separate SCHIP program for children below age 19 in families with income levels between 100 percent and 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). The current FPL for a family of four is $16,700.

Today's amendment expands income eligibility to 200 percent of FPL and includes cost-sharing elements. The state anticipates implementing both of the amendments in January 2000.

The benefit package will be equivalent to the State and Public Employer's Health Insurance Plan plus additional benefits such as immunizations, vision and hearing screening and dental services.

Mississippi also provides premium assistance to employees who insure their children through employer-sponsored insurance that meets the benchmark or benchmark-equivalent standards of SCHIP health coverage. Additionally, Mississippi has procedures in place to assure that families do not pay for immunizations. If an employer's plan does not include immunizations, they will be provided by the child's private physician or from the local health department.

Families' copayments will be computed on a sliding scale based on income levels, with cost-sharing not exceeding 5 percent of the families' income. There are no cost-sharing requirements for American Indian/Alaskan Native children.

"Mississippi's second phase is a positive demonstration that SCHIP is working and that states are enthusiastic about this program," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which administers SCHIP, Medicaid and Medicare. "It is through efforts like Mississippi's 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 that others take for granted," said Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H., administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the agency working with HCFA and states to implement SCHIP. "Free or low-cost health insurance is what families need to ensure their children can grow up strong and healthy."

SCHIP plans have now been approved for all the states and territories.

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