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Date: Thursday, May 28, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145
HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of Pennsylvania's plan for children's health insurance, which will provide health coverage for thousands of uninsured children.
Pennsylvania could receive as much as approximately $117 million this year in new funds, which state officials will use to fund its existing Pennsylvania CHIP program. Pennsylvania is one of three states that had the benefit package of their existing state children's health program grandfathered under the federal Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Pennsylvania's program currently serves 54,000 children. With its federal allotment, the state hopes to bring enrollment in the program up to 63,000 children by the end of state's fiscal year 1999.
The federal CHIP program 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.
Pennsylvania is the fifteenth state to have its plan approved in the nine months since CHIP funds became available. Together, these 15 states anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than one million currently uninsured children within the next three years.
"By providing children with health insurance, we are giving them a real head start on a health life," said Secretary Shalala. "Working together, the Clinton Administration and the states are making remarkable progress in reducing the number of uninsured children in this country. Together, we are bringing working parents and their kids tremendous peace of mind."
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.
Pennsylvania CHIP will provide coverage to children aged one through 16 with family incomes at or below 185 percent of poverty (the federal poverty level is $16,450 for a family of four). The benefit package includes a full range of inpatient and outpatient services.
"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 all 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 15 states which have been approved--Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, Rhode Island, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania--these states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have submitted plans: Tennessee, Massachusetts, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Vermont, Wisconsin, Texas, Utah, Minnesota, Montana, Indiana, Maryland, Arkansas, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico and Maine.