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Date: Friday, Aug. 7, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145
HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala announced approval of Maine's plan to expand health coverage for thousands of uninsured children through the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Maine could receive as much as $12 million in FY 1998 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.
Maine will use its CHIP funds to expand coverage to nearly 10,500 children by July 2,000 by combining both a Medicaid expansion and a statewide children's health insurance program, Cub Care. However, Maine - like all states with CHIP plans - will receive federal matching funds only for actual expenditures on insuring children.
Maine is the 29th CHIP plan to be approved in the 11 months since CHIP funds have been available. Together, these 28 states and Puerto Rico anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than two 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 healthy life," Secretary Shalala said. "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.
Maine's Title XXI program will expand coverage to children through age 18 with family incomes up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level (the federal poverty level for a family of four is $16,450). The Medicaid expansion will cover children aged one through 18 in families with incomes up to 150 percent of poverty. The Cub Care program will cover children in families with incomes from 151-185 percent of poverty.
"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 administers CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare. "It is through those efforts 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 29 plans that 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 and Maine -- these plans have been submitted: Tennessee, Nevada, Vermont, Montana, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Georgia, Iowa, South Dakota, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, the Virgin Islands, Kansas, North Dakota, Arizona, Delaware, Mississippi and Louisiana.