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Clinton steps up drive to get health coverage for children
Posted
1-17-2000 New York. President Clinton will propose a $2.7 billion initiative to fund expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and to accelerate enrollment of uninsured children in the program and in Medicaid. Clinton will seek the funds in his fiscal 2001 budget proposal, which he will send to Congress Feb. 7. The funds will support a five-year initiative that would provide new options to find and enroll uninsured children through schools; allow additional sites such as childcare referral centers to enroll low-income, uninsured children immediately; and require states to make Medicaid enrollment as simple as enrollment in CHIP. The initiative would also expand Medicaid to include an option to cover children through age 20 and extend the same option to CHIP. The present age limit for enrollment in the state CHIP is 18. States currently have the option to enroll certain children through age 20 in the Medicaid program, and the initiative would enable them to offer the same flexibility for CHIP. According to the White House, the number of children enrolled in the state CHIPs doubled to nearly 2 million in 1999. The administration also noted that the number of state programs that cover children living in families with an income of up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level has increased from four in March 1997 to 30 today. Despite these positive trends, the White House said that millions of children remain eligible for Medicaid and CHIP but are not enrolled. The Clinton administration cited a lack of awareness about eligibility as one of the reasons. The administration also said a lack of coordination between federal programs has hampered efforts to enroll uninsured children. According to the White House, the initiative proposed Jan. 11 would enable school lunch programs to share application information with Medicaid staff for the purpose of outreach and enrollment.
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