Reauthorization of Children???s Health Insurance Program Critical
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 8/22/2007
As many as 5 million uninsured children could receive health care if Congress works out differences in two bills that reauthorize the expiring State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) this fall.
Children's advocates hailed the passage of both bills this summer, but insist that a minimum of $50 million be included in the final bill that comes out of conference.
"I urge conferees to stand strong to maintain the full $50 billion from the House-passed bill, which will cover a million more children and allow states to adopt program improvements such as express lane eligibility, dental coverage for children, and coverage of legal immigrant children and pregnant women," said Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman. "Every dollar in this package is a step toward a stronger future for our children."
The House bill would provide the $50 billion -- on top of the current $5 billion budget – over the next 5 years. The Senate bill only earmarks an additional $35 billion over five years.
The SCHIP program, created in 1997, provides health coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. SCHIP currently insures nearly 7 million children.
SCHIP has largely been viewed as a successful program. It helped to reduce the number of uninsured children by 30% since 1998, many of whom are minority children, according to a Center for American Progress report released in March.
The percentage of uninsured Latino children has dropped from 30 percent to 21 percent, from 20 percent to 12 percent for African-American children, and down to 8 percent from 17 percent for Asian-American and Pacific Islander children since SCHIP was created in 1997.
Currently, there are more than 9 million uninsured children in the U.S. Families USA says that nearly two thirds of them are eligible for SCHIP, but cannot enroll because of insufficient funding.
"These children are in working families whose parents don't have health coverage through their jobs and who can't afford family health insurance that now averages more than $12,000 per year," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.
However, Republican opposition to the expansion of SCHIP is fierce. President Bush has threatened to veto both versions.
In addition, his administration has erected new guidelines for state health officials designed to prevent parents with private insurance from signing their children up for SCHIP.
Children's advocates argue that these guidelines create unnecessary restrictions and could derail the success of a program that already covers so few children. Rachel Klein, deputy director of health policy at Families USA told the Washington Post: "The effect of this policy is to have more uninsured kids,"
SCHIP will expire on September 30 if Congress does not pass a consensus bill.
