Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Three States’ Efforts To Expand Children’s Health Coverage

Summaries of recent news about efforts to reduce the number of uninsured children in Delaware, Montana and Texas appear below.

Delaware
State lawmakers on Wednesday introduced bipartisan legislation that would use information from schools to identify children who are eligible for SCHIP, the Wilmington News Journal reports. The state last year returned about $3 million of the $10 million in federal funding it received for SCHIP because not enough children were enrolled in the program. State Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn said that the money could have provided coverage to 1,000 additional children. There were about 4,800 children enrolled in the program as of December 2007. The University of Delaware Center for Applied Demography & Survey Research estimates that about 8,840 uninsured children in the state might qualify for SCHIP.

Under the legislation, school districts would provide the state Department of Health and Social Services with the names of students enrolled in no-cost and reduce-price lunch programs, and the department would then send information to the students' parents (Ratnayake, Wilmington News Journal, 1/10).

Montana
State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner John Morrison (D) on Monday submitted changes to a proposed ballot measure that would expand SCHIP and Medicaid eligibility to an additional 30,000 children, the Billings Gazette reports. Morrison in October 2007 submitted, and later withdrew, a similar health care initiative, which included a coverage mandate.

The revised proposal does not include a mandate, but would extend SCHIP eligibility to children in families with incomes up to 250% of the federal poverty level and Medicaid coverage to children in families with incomes up to 185% of the poverty level. In addition, the measure would encourage parents who already have health insurance to add their children to the policy and would pay the cost of adding a child to a policy if the family qualifies for Medicaid or SCHIP and the cost of coverage is less than the government-sponsored programs. The measure also would increase outreach efforts to help enroll eligible children in the programs.

Morrison said the expansion, which would take place only if federal funds are available, could cost the state as much as $20 million annually and generate up to $70 million a year in federal matching funds. State officials will review the measure before supporters of the initiative can start collecting signatures to place it on the November ballot (Dennison, Billings Gazette, 1/9).

Texas
State Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday proposed a program designed to provide private health coverage for the 200,000 uninsured children in the state who are not covered through their parents' employer-sponsored plans or government programs, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Under the plan, a private insurer would contract with the state to provide coverage to a pool of children. A court could order parents to purchase coverage based on their ability to pay, and the court could order insurance premiums withheld from a parent's paycheck. Parents would be able to opt out of the program if they provide proof of insurance.

Abbott, who announced his proposal at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature, did not give a cost estimate for the program, which would require legislative changes (MacLaggan, Austin American-Statesman, 1/10).