Unexpected turn of events for children’s health insurance
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The modest spending increase that Congress approved for a popular
children’s health insurance program will maintain coverage for those already
enrolled. But many lacking insurance will have to look elsewhere.
Few
expected such a result when 2007 began. Democrats proposed a huge spending
increase on the federal-state partnership known as the State Children’s Health
Insurance Program. Many Republicans embraced the idea.
Some
analysts say the number of children getting SCHIP coverage may still decline
next year — a bitter prospect for Democrats who promised they would expand
enrollment from 6 million children to 10 million.
Republican
lawmakers say they want to work out a compromise. But they insisted that SCHIP
retain a new Bush administration directive that makes it harder for states to
cover middle-income children.
The
directive said that before states cover higher-income children, they must meet
the following threshold: At least 95 percent of children eligible for Medicaid
and SCHIP with incomes less than twice the poverty level must be enrolled in
those programs.
Many
states say meeting that threshold is nearly impossible. But that’s not all the
directive said.
Even
if states meet that threshold, the middle-income children will have to go
without private coverage for a full year before they can enroll in SCHIP, and
their families will have to pay premiums or co-payments that are 5 percent of
their income.
California
is considering a proposal that would require all Californians to have health
insurance coverage, but a central piece of that proposal also increases the
threshold for SCHIP eligibility — from the $42,925 level for a family of three
to the $51,510 level.
Overall, about 9.4 million children ages 18 and under are
uninsured, according to the Census Bureau.