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Date: Friday, May 29, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145
HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of Wisconsin's plan for children's health insurance, which will provide health coverage for thousands of uninsured children.
Wisconsin could receive as much as $38 million in new funds during the first year, which state officials will use to expand its Medicaid program. The state will initially cover an additional 2,000 children under its Phase I plan for the new federal Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and will amend its CHIP program with a more comprehensive plan in the near future.
The 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.
Wisconsin is the seventeenth state to have its plan approved in the nine months since CHIP funds became available. Together, these 17 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 healthy 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.
Wisconsin plans to expand Medicaid eligibility to children ages 15-18 in families with incomes below 100 percent of the federal poverty level (the federal poverty level is $16,450 for a family of four). Presently, the state's Medicaid program covers children under age 6 in families with incomes less than 185 percent of poverty, and children ages 6-14 in families with incomes less than 100 percent of poverty. All eligible children will receive the full Medicaid benefit package with no out-of-pocket costs for families.
"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 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 17 states which have been approved--Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin--these plans have been submitted: Tennessee, Massachusetts, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Vermont, Puerto Rico, Texas, Utah, Minnesota, Montana, Indiana, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico and Maine.