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Date: Tuesday, April 7, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202)690-6145
Michigan could receive as much as $92 million this year in new funds, which state officials will use to insure as many as 120,000 new children by the end of fiscal year 2000. The program is the result of the federal Children's Health Insurance Program (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.
Michigan is the ninth state to have its plan approved in the six months since CHIP funds became available. Together, these nine states anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than one million currently uninsured children within the next three years.
"In just six months, we've reached a significant milestone. States are telling us they plan to insure one million uninsured children when their plans are fully implemented, all thanks to the CHIP program established under the Clinton Administration. That's a remarkable achievement," Shalala said. "Many of these children come from working families, who play by the rules, but still don't earn enough to afford coverage for their kids. CHIP is bringing healthier lives to America's children, and peace of mind to America's working families."
Michigan will use its new allocation to implement MIChild. The program will provide comprehensive health care coverage to all children under age 19 whose families have incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (the poverty level is $16,450 for a family of four). The benefit package will mirror the state employees' plan and will be administered by multiple managed care providers. MIChild will not impose co-payments on families with incomes at or below 150 percent of poverty. Some co-payments will apply for families between 151-200 percent of poverty.
"We are pleased that Michigan is creating a new CHIP program that will provide a brighter future for thousands of children who otherwise would not have had health coverage," said Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which runs the CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare programs.
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.
"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 put 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 nine states which have been approved--Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York and Michigan--these states and Puerto Rico have submitted plans: Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon, New Jersey, Idaho, Nevada, Vermont, Wisconsin, Texas and Utah.