HRSA Awards States Grant Money To Study Ways to Provide Health Coverage for Uninsured

HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded grants to 11 states and one territory to help them develop plans to provide affordable health care to the uninsured (Baltimore Sun, 7/17). Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, South Carolina, the Virgin Islands, West Virginia and Wyoming each received one-year grants because they had either a low percentage of uninsured residents or possess "the ability to significantly reduce the number of uninsured" (HRSA Web site). Maine Human Services Commissioner Kevin Concannon said, "One of the criteria for the grant was the degree to which each state has developed successful initiatives regarding public health" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/15). The grants will enable the states to study ways to provide health coverage to the uninsured through programs similar to already existing federal or state health plans. At the conclusion of the programs' one-year term, each state will submit a report to the HHS secretary that "identifies the characteristics of the uninsured within its state and proposals for providing them with affordable health insurance coverage" (HRSA Web site). Debbie Chang, deputy health secretary for the Maryland Health Department, said the study "could allow the state to explore public-private links to expand coverage, as it has done in the Maryland Children's Health Program," the state's CHIP program (Baltimore Sun, 7/17).