Children's Health Insurance Program Extended

Finally, legislation was signed on Saturday to extend SCHIP until March 31, 2009. This will ensure that the states will have enough funding to continue with their programs.

The SCHIP bill had previously been vetoed twice, because neither party could come to an agreement on the amount of funding and other specifics.

SCHIP has been around for about 10 years, and has received a lot of publicity lately due to the disagreement on the bill.

Some wanted SCHIP to be expanded and raise the limit of income-eligibility and others disagreed on this subject, and how they would provide that funding.

The State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) provides low-cost or free healthcare to those with certain income eligibility requirements.

SCHIP is administrated at a state level, and may be known by different names in different states.

For more information about SCHIP in your state: http://www.insurekidsnow.gov/

Peachcare Update

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution just reported that Peachcare gets another week of funding and that it's likely Congress will extend SCHIP until september.

Peachcare offers free or low-cost health insurance for Georgia's children.

Peachcare.org is the website. I was just looking at the website and the meta title is "Index". Perhaps they should add a title to their website. It might help people find the website easier. Maybe they should spend some money on redesigning their website.

Don't give up Peachcare, we are pulling for you.

Texas CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) Awareness

Why is it that more than 850,000 of the 1.5 million Texas children who don't have health insurance, could qualify for CHIP or medicaid? 190,000 for SCHIP, and 660,000 for medicaid. I don't know why, but it's a bit shocking. Spreading awareness will help. I've even heard of one state that has actually contacted people that could qualify and let them know about the programs.

Texas CHIP (Children's health insurance program) is a program for families that don't qualify for medicaid but can't afford private health insurance. Currently if you visit the site it will say the state is closely watching the action on CHIP, but no immediate changes are expected for their program. There you can go and learn about the program. $50 or less you can insure all of your children. The site is in both english and spanish.

At the CHIP website you can learn what is covered, who qualifies, the cost, how to apply, and how to renew. Some of the benefits include prescription drug coverage, dentist visits, check-ups, vaccinations, hospital care, and eye care.

Go here for information about Texas CHIP.
Go here for information about Texas Medicaid.

Peachcare for Kids needs funds

Peachcare for Kids, Georgia's SCHIP program, has received enough money for another month according to the Atlanta Journal-Constition. So on December 14th, they will either need more temporary funds or perhaps a compromise will be met by then.

In March of 2007, PeachCare had to freeze their enrollment due to lack of funding. Then on July 12th, 2007 the freeze was lifted for new enrollees, and ready to serve 295,000 children, since appropriate bills were signed that included enough funding. Peach Care for Kids is a jointly funded state and federal insurance program for children.

Now, I can only imagine the frustration for everyone involved. Reliability and consistency with these programs should be important. We really need to get our act together. I really hope that Congress works together and approves enough funding for these SCHIP programs for another 5 years. Being in limbo is never good. PeachCare is a very highly successful program.

PeachCare for Kids has been around for many years, many people like it. When Congress knows that a compromise can be met, maybe they should just do it. Anything they pass will be better than states having to freeze their programs.

Plan to Expand SCHIP not going away

A blog at the Baltimore Sun reports that the plan to expand SCHIP may be coming soon. House majority leader, Hoyer, said the democrats could bring the bill back to the floor as early as next week. While republicans believe that a compromise must be met, Hoyer suggested that the main difference will be better salesmenship.

Also The Hill reports about the concerns the republicans have with SCHIP and how the democrats plan to address these issues. Among the concerns was the idea that families making as much as $83,000 could get health insurance for their children, but this was proposed only by the state of New York. Other concerns are addressed in this article.

The reason for the income level in New York, is most likely because of the cost of private family health insurance in the state. We'll see in the near future if they decide to compromise or not, or if the democrats can do a better job selling the bill to the republicans.

The democrats better have a good case. Are they assuming the republicans did not already know these things? Can they really sell them this time? This time when the republicans and democrats mingle, I suggest they come to an agreement, rather than wasting our time.

UPDATE...

Reuters reported about the changes to the bill. The price tag is still the same. However here are the new changes. While the old version did not allow illegal aliens, the new version requires more rigorous background checks. Coverage would not be offered to children of families with income three times over federal poverty rate. It also declares benefits to childless adults will be phased out within a year.

Montana CHIP: We have plenty of funds

The state of Montana, says they have plenty of money to fund the program of CHIP, until the issue gets worked out. The agency has no waiting list, and encourages families to keep applying. The program covers more than 15,000 children in Montana for famlies that make less than about $36,100, which is 175% of the poverty level. Other states have been forced to consider other measures and waiting lists until the issue gets worked out. The website for Montana's Children's health insurance program is at Montana CHIP.

The state of TX also sees no immediate changes to their Texas CHIP program and says they have sufficient federal funding to maintain the program. Other states are not as fortunate. Hopefully the issue will be resolved soon.

Children's Health Insurance - Veto Fight Ad

New ads target Republicans to overturn Bush's veta for SCHIP expansion. The coalition, which includes the AFL-CIO and MoveOn.org, is spending nearly $1 million on a television ad campaign, reported on CNN.com. House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, says they needed "less than 20 votes" in the House to overturn the veto.

The ads will include a baby and children, with an announcer saying "Bush just vetoed Abby". I'm really curious if ads can make a difference to persuade our politicians, to vote one way or another. I find the idea of placing ads quite interesting, in fact. This won't be the end of my posts about state children's health insurance. I will be posting again later.

Meanwhile, do you think this will work? Hey, at least MoveOn.org pre-warned us what ad they are going to show.