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Children's health insurance plan goes nationwide
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9-20-99 Washington. The Children's Health Insurance Program reached a milestone this month with the approval of Wyoming's and Washington state's plans to provide coverage for uninsured children, completing the program's approval in all 50 states and U.S. territories. The program, signed into law in 1997, appropriates $24 billion over five years to insure children from families with incomes too high for traditional Medicare but who cannot afford private coverage. "The Clinton administration and the states are working together to give children the health care they need to live longer, healthier lives," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, in a Sept. 8 announcement of the approvals. The 56 approved plans will offer health coverage to more than 2.6 million currently uninsured children in one of three ways: expanding a state's current Medicare program, creating an entirely new children's health insurance program, or a combination of both. "Congress wanted to give the states as much flexibility as possible in developing their plans in order to foster creativity," explained Tom Flavin, a spokesperson with the Health Care Financing Administration, which administers the insurance program. The program's success was lauded by advocates for children's health care. "It's certainly a step in the right direction, but now we have to work harder to get the word out to parents that this coverage is available," said Barbara Kelley, RN, president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners, based in Cherry Hill, N.J., and an associate professor of nursing at Northeastern University in Boston. "We need outreach programs to get to these parents in grocery stores, beauty parlors-wherever they are."
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