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Inside this issue:

After years of congressional wrangling, short-term fixes and presidential vetoes, the State Children's Health Insurance Program has received the long-awaited boost health advocates have been hoping for.

In early February, in one of his first legislative acts as president, Barack Obama signed the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009, officially extending the successful program through 2013 and providing an additional $32.8 billion in funds financed primarily by a 62-cent increase in the federal cigarette tax. Created in 1997, SCHIP currently provides health care coverage to more than 7 million U.S. children and with the recent reauthorization, the program is expected to expand to an additional 4 million children who would otherwise go uninsured. Congressional policy-makers had been working to renew SCHIP since its authorization expired in 2007, twice passing legislation that would have extended the program through 2012. Unfortunately, then-President George Bush vetoed both bills, forcing SCHIP to operate under a temporary extension that expired last month. Now, with new funding, new mandates as well as a slew of positive rule changes, SCHIP is poised to continue its critical role in improving children's health.

SCHIP's reauthorization comes at a time when demands on health-related safety net programs are expected to increase as more families face job loss, and often with it, the loss of health insurance coverage. In 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, SCHIP enrollment increased 4 percent over 2007 numbers, and Acting HHS Secretary Charles Johnson in January said the agency predicts such enrollment trends will continue throughout 2009. Targeting uninsured children living in families with incomes at about 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which was about $42,000 for a family of four in 2008, SCHIP fills a critical gap for families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private coverage. To better reach such families and children in need, the new SCHIP law provides new funding to support outreach activities as well as new tools to better streamline the enrollment process.

Among the law's new enrollment efforts are $100 million to support national, state and local Medicaid and SCHIP outreach activities, and a new performance bonus system that encourages states to enroll more of the uninsured children already eligible for Medicaid coverage.

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SCHIP Renewal to Bring Care to Millions More Kids in Need: Program Reauthorized Through 2013

July 2009  Issue # 37

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