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State officials expect that the two amendments approved today will provide health insurance to an additional 16,000 children by September 2000. Through September 1999, the state had enrolled nearly 82,000 children.

Pennsylvania is eligible to receive as much as $117 million in funds for fiscal year 1999. SCHIP is historic, bipartisan legislation signed in 1997 by President Clinton. The SCHIP law appropriates $24 billion over 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, like all states with approved SCHIP plans, will receive federal matching funds only for actual expenditures to insure children.

"The Clinton administration and the states are working together to give children the health care they need to live longer, healthier lives," said Secretary Shalala. "It's a pleasure to approve Pennsylvania's amendment and I look forward to more states expanding their programs in the future."

As of September 1999, states have enrolled nearly 2 million children. SCHIP 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 any amendment to a state's SCHIP program.

Pennsylvania's initial SCHIP plan, an expansion of the state's preexisting PA CHIP program, was approved by Secretary Shalala on May 28, 1998, and its first amendment was approved on Oct. 29, 1998. Today, the second and third amendments to Pennsylvania's plan are approved. The second will expand income eligibility by deducting child care and work expenses from total income. The third amendment will add outpatient mental health services, inpatient and outpatient substance abuse services, rehabilitation services, and disposable medical supplies.

Families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for PA CHIP. The federal poverty level is $17,050 for a family of four. There is no cost sharing for families in PA CHIP.

"Pennsylvania's amendments are a positive demonstration that SCHIP is working and that states are enthusiastic about this program," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which administers SCHIP, Medicaid and Medicare. "It is through efforts like Pennsylvania's 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 children the same kind of high quality health care that others take for granted," said Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H., administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the agency working with HCFA and states to implement SCHIP. "Free or low-cost health insurance is what families need to ensure their kids can grow up strong and healthy."

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