Utah House Approves Bill To Increase Insurance for Low-Income Children

The Utah House on Thursday approved a bill that would shift up to 7,700 children in the state's SCHIP program to Medicaid, allowing 7,700 children on a waiting list to enroll in SCHIP, the Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News reports. In addition, the bill would allow children enrolled in SCHIP because their families have assets of more than $3,000 and thus do not qualify for Medicaid to enroll in Medicaid. The bill would cost the state an additional $2.6 million, which is not in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2005. State Rep. Dave Hogue (R), the bill's sponsor, said that the extra money could come from the state's portion of the national tobacco settlement or another source (Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News, 2/20). The bill comes after a December policy brief from Utah Children, a not-for-profit child advocacy group, that suggested lawmakers further increase the state's SCHIP funding by using funds from Utah's Tobacco Settlement Account. The brief also proposed that the state eliminate an asset test for Medicaid because 20% of children enrolled in SCHIP would meet the Medicaid eligibility requirements without it, according to Utah Children's estimates (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/15/03).