The U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human
Services today forwarded to Congress a report submitted to the secretaries by
the Medical Child Support Working Group, a federal advisory committee jointly
established under the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998. The
report, "Twenty-One Million Children's Health: Our Shared Responsibility,"
includes 76 recommendations that attempt to expand health coverage for children
eligible for child support enforcement services.
The Working Group was made up of a diverse
membership including representatives of the two departments, children's
advocacy organizations, directors of state child support enforcement and
Medicaid agencies, employers, and group health plans' sponsors and
administrators. The report to the secretaries responds to the Working Group's
statutory mandate to identify and provide recommendations that address barriers
to the effective enforcement of medical support by state child support
enforcement agencies.
Medical support orders, which provide for
children's health care coverage, may require non-custodial parents to include
their children under their employment-based health insurance coverage. They may
be established and enforced with the help of state child support enforcement
agencies.
Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman said that the
Working Group's report represents "an effort to ensure that we take
responsibility for one of our nation's greatest resources, our children." "The
report provides helpful recommendations to ensure that children receive
critical health care coverage through every possible means including parents'
private insurance or federal/state programs such as Medicaid or the State Child
Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)," HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala noted.
Secretaries Herman and Shalala said that they are
looking forward to working with Congress to develop solutions to ensure more
American children will have access to health care coverage they need and
deserve.
Copies of the 260-page report as well as Questions
and Answers regarding its findings will be posted on the HHS web site at
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news.
Since 1985, state child support agencies have been
required to seek health care coverage as part of child support orders. State
agencies are also required to pursue private health care coverage when such
coverage is available through a non-custodial parent at a reasonable cost.
However, Census Bureau figures indicate that only about 41 percent of parents
awarded child support payments had health insurance included in the award. The
pattern appears to have changed little since 1991. It is estimated some three
million of the 21 million children currently eligible for child support
enforcement services are without any health care coverage. |