State Children's Health Insurance Program
All children in America should have healthcare coverage, but millions still do not. Uninsured children do not receive the routine medical care they need and are more likely to be treated at the emergency room for common ailments.
No government program has been more successful in expanding children’s healthcare coverage than the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Since 1997, the number of uninsured children has fallen by almost a third, and today SCHIP covers more than 4 million children. If a program can produce those results in just ten years, imagine what it can accomplish in another ten.
Last fall, strong bipartisan majorities in both the House and teh Senate passed two versions of the legislation that would have reauthorized SCHIP. These proposals would have strengthened the important federal investment in children's health. Unfortunately, the President vetoed these bills, leaving Congress to enact an extension of the current program through March 2009.First Focus will continue to urge Congress to take whatever action is possible to improve access and coverage for low-income children, with a particular focus on teh 6 million children who are eligible but unenrolled in SCHIP.
As the debate on SCHIP continues, First Focus urges policymakers to include the following provisions in any five-year SCHIP reauthorization:
Fully fund SCHIP. At the bare minimum, reauthorization should ensure that no currently-covered children lose coverage as a result of reauthorization.Enroll more children. Despite SCHIP’s enormous success, two-thirds of children eligible to receive coverage under SCHIP remain unenrolled in the program. Reauthorization should provide states with the resources and tools to enroll more children in the program and improve enrollment processes by allowing states to establish an "Express Lane" option. Express Lane improves enrollment of uninsured kids by targeting children who are already enrolled in public programs which have similar eligibility requirements, like Food Stamps, school lunch and WIC. Approximately 70 percent of all the children who are eligible but unenrolled in SCHIP or Medicaid participate in another federal means-tested program.
Broaden Access to Care. Reauthorization should improve coverage for dental and mental health services, and give states the option to cover pregnat women and other populations including legal immigrant children. In addition, reauthorization should address the onerous citizenship documentation requirements that are making it more difficult for qualified U.S. children to get the access to the health care services they need and deserve.
