1. CHIP Agreement Would Provide Health Insurance to 3.8 Million Uninsured Children
New Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates show that by 2012 a total of 3.8 million children who otherwise would be uninsured would have health insurance under the bipartisan agreement reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) developed by House and Senate negotiators. The CBO estimates show that 2.5 million of these children are uninsured children who already would be eligible for CHIP or Medicaid under the current eligibility rules that states have set for these programs. Another 700,000 children enrolled in CHIP who otherwise would lose their coverage in coming years and end up uninsured because states would receive insufficient federal CHIP funding to sustain their existing programs.
2. New Jersey: Family Making $56,000 Struggles With "Out of Sight" Health Cost
Lori and Steven Siravo earn $56,000 a year and say they can't afford health insurance. They consider themselves lucky to live in New Jersey, where the family's income isn't too high to qualify their 16-year-old daughter, Carlie, for U.S. government-subsidized coverage under the State Children's Health Insurance Program "It's one of the greatest things," said Lori, 48, a hairdresser who pays $74.50 a month for her daughter's benefits, less than a third of what she'd have to spend for private insurance. She and her husband, who works for a small construction company, don't have insurance. "At least I can sleep a little better at night knowing Carlie has it."
CHIP, as it's known, was created for families who earned too much for Medicaid, the U.S. insurance program for the poor, and too little to afford a private plan. Over the years, some states won approval from the Bush administration to enroll kids in families with higher incomes. Governors argued that higher living costs, coupled with insurance premiums rising at double or triple the rate of wages, put coverage beyond the reach of even middle-income families. In New Jersey, the most generous of 19 states that expanded eligibility, a family of four earning $72,275 qualifies. New Jersey's high wages push up the price of everything, said state Senator Joseph Vitale, chairman of the health committee. The median income in New Jersey is $64,470, second only to Maryland's $65,144, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2006. "It costs more in New Jersey, even if you're a middle- class family,'" Vitale, a Democrat, said in a telephone interview. "It's a struggle between property taxes and car insurance and putting food on the table, and then when it comes to health insurance our costs are out of sight." [Aliza Marcus, Bloomberg.com, 09/25/07]
3. Montana: Health Insurance Program Is Crucial to Children's Future
The suicide rate for girls between the ages of 10 and 14 jumped by 71 percent in 2004, and violence among children is becoming a regular spectacle on TV newscasts. But mental health care for troubled children is sparse and inadequately funded.Approximately 90 to 95 percent of suicides can be tied to mental illness, often depression, and jails are full of folks with chemical imbalances. Early psychological treatment could curb suicide rates and slow a skyrocketing and expensive incarceration trend spreading across the country.
Right now, legislators are wrangling over health care funding. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), authorized in 1997 to provide insurance for kids from middle-class families not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but unable to pay for private health insurance, is set to expire at the end of this month. With the deadline to reauthorize the program looming, legislators must evaluate their spending priorities. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the program needs $14 billion over the next five years to maintain its current enrollment numbers. About 6.5 million youths nationally are enrolled in the program. More than 9 million American children are uninsured today.
To qualify for the CHIP in Montana, a family must earn less than $36,000 per year. But many parents are caught in the gray area, without enough cash to pay steep health insurance bills, yet not poor enough to qualify for assistance. Families living on $37,000 a year, above the CHIP cutoff, are hard-pressed to pay for health care; many must choose between insurance and basic necessities. Nearly 40,000 children across the state today have no health insurance. In Montana, CHIP covers close to 15,000 children. It would cost the government, and taxpayers, more money to lift the program's income requirement and allow more middle-income kids in. But over the long run, providing health care and psychiatric services for kids is a good investment. [Montana Kaimin, 09/13/07]
4. Number of Uninsured Children Hits New High
After years of success in covering more of America's children, new Census Bureau data released August 28, 2007 show that the number of uninsured children has increased for the second consecutive year and has hit a new high, according to the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF). In 2006, the number of uninsured children under 18 increased by 611,000 to 8.7 million. As a result, there now are more uninsured children in the United States than there are all children in Texas and Virginia combined.
"This increase in the number of uninsured children is twice as large as last year's jump and means that we now have more children without coverage than at any point since the turn of the century," said Jocelyn Guyer, CCF's deputy executive director. The increase in the number of uninsured children is part of the larger trend of Americans finding it harder than ever to secure affordable coverage through their jobs.
The new Census numbers underscore the urgent need for a strong reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to provide states with new funding and tools to cover more uninsured children.
"Today's sobering news should set off alarm bells in the halls of Congress and in the Oval Office signaling that we need to redouble our efforts to ensure that America's families have access to affordable health insurance," said Cindy Mann, executive director of CCF.
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