This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.
Date: Monday, April 27, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145
HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of Connecticut's plan for children's health insurance, which will provide health coverage for thousands of uninsured children.
Connecticut could receive approximately $35 million in new funds in Fiscal Year 1998, which state officials will use to insure approximately 15,000 children by June 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.
Connecticut is the eleventh state to have its plan approved in the seven months since CHIP funds became available. Together, these 11 states anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than one million currently uninsured children within the next three years.
"This is a tremendous achievement. Within the space of seven months, states have put plans in place to cover more than one million children," said Shalala. "This program is bringing peace of mind to hardworking families who can't afford health insurance for their children, and the promise of a brighter, healthier future for our nation's children."
Connecticut will use its new allocation to both expand its Medicaid population and create a new program based on the state employee's health plan. Under Part A of the state's new HUSKY program, Medicaid eligibility will be expanded to include children ages 14 through 18 with household incomes of up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level (the poverty level is $16,450 a year for a family of four). Previously, the Medicaid program only covered children up to age 13 in families with incomes up to 185 percent of poverty.
The new insurance program (Part B of HUSKY) will be targeted toward children up to age 18 in families with incomes up to 235 percent of poverty. The state will apply an income disregard--setting aside certain types of income the family may have--effectively bringing coverage to 300 percent of poverty. Families with incomes above 235 percent of poverty before income disregards are applied will be charged premiums of $30 per child, with an upper limit of $50 per family. Children with special physical and behavioral health needs who qualify for HUSKY Part B will receive special services under a special third part of the program, HUSKY Plus.
"We are pleased that Connecticut 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 11 states which have been approved--Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Connecticut--these states and Puerto Rico have submitted plans: Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Vermont, Wisconsin, Texas, Utah, Montana and Indiana.