U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan today highlighted
the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge to enroll five million
children in Medicaid and CHIP within five years. Since Sebelius
announced the Challenge last February, the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services (CMS) have built an unprecedented coalition of
partners, ranging from state governors to national advocacy
organizations, who have stepped up to the challenge to enroll kids and
educate families.
“This new
data will help us to focus our efforts and our grant funding where
they are most needed”
Although health coverage is currently available to children in families
with incomes up to about $45,000 per year in nearly every state, an
estimated five million uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or
CHIP but not enrolled.
Nothing is more important to our future than the health of our
children. No child should have to skip a doctors appointment or go
without the medicine they need because their family cant pay, said
Secretary Sebelius. Despite the great advances that states have made
over the years, there are nearly five million uninsured children who are
currently eligible for coverage but are not enrolled. Im challenging
everyone, from my state and federal counterparts, to local governments
and community-based organizations, to health centers and school
districts, to faith-based groups and Indian tribes, to take this
conversation about childrens coverage to the next level to find and
enroll those five million kids.
If a child is not healthy, he or she cannot learn, said Secretary
Duncan. The education community has a critical role to play in finding
and enrolling eligible children. Were working to involve every member
of the school community, including superintendents, principals,
teachers, school nurses, and lunch room staff in meeting this achievable
challenge.
Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan were joined by Genevieve Kenney of the
Urban Institute, whose new report Five
Million Eligible But Uninsured: Who and Where Are the Children Yet to
Enroll in Medicaid And The Childrens Health Insurance Program?
was released in Health Affairs on-line today along with a Health
Affairs Commentary by Secretary Sebelius, Rising to the Challenge:
Tools for Enrolling Eligible Children in Health Coverage.
For years, researchers have struggled to produce accurate estimates on
the number of uninsured children in each state. The paper released today
by Health Affairs successfully created a new model, using data from The
American Community Survey, that enabled researchers to produce
meaningful national and state estimates. Some of the key findings
include that:
According to coverage estimates, an estimated 7.3 million children
were uninsured on an average day in 2008, of whom 4.7 million (65
percent) were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but not enrolled
Participation rates varied across states from 55 percent to 95 percent
Ten states had participation rates at or above 90 percent
Thirty-nine percent of eligible uninsured children (1.8 million) live
in just three statesCalifornia, Texas, and Floridaand 61 percent
(2.9 million) are concentrated in ten states.
This new
data will help us to focus our efforts and our grant funding where
they are most needed, Sebelius said. We now have a much better sense
of where most uninsured children live, and which communities may need
more help.
Together, the Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act
(CHIPRA) and the Affordable Care Act provide $120 million for grants
designed to promote enrollment and retention strategies that will
increase the prevalence of health coverage.
One of this Administrations key goals is to fulfill the CHIPRA
legislation which the President signed as one of his first acts in
office to ensure that all children who are eligible for Medicaid and
CHIP are enrolled in coverage and stay enrolled for as long as they are
eligible.
CHIPRA, combined with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(ARRA) and its recent extension of increased federal Medicaid funding,
has given states unprecedented federal support that has enabled them to
keep providing essential health services for low-income families through
Medicaid during the economic downturn.
To date, 17 national organizations and a number of states have agreed to
sign on to the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge. These
organizations, ranging from the United Way to the American Academy of
Pediatrics, represent a broad base of organizations who are working to
enroll children in health insurance. The full list includes:
Governor Ted Strickland, Ohio
Governor Ted Kulongoski, Oregon
American
Academy of Pediatrics
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Families
USA
First Focus
March of Dimes
MomsRising
National
Academy for State Health Policy
National Association of Childrens
Hospitals and Related Institutions
National Association of
Community Health Centers
National Association of School Nurses
National
Council of La Raza
National Covering Kids and Families Network
New
England Alliance for Childrens Health, Community Catalyst
PICO
The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
United Way Worldwide
Voices for
Americas Children
There are a wide range of strategies like providing 12 months of
continuous eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP to reduce the chances of
children cycling on and off of coverage and pre-populating renewal forms
to make it easier for families to stay enrolled that are known to help
get and keep children insured. HHS will be providing technical
assistance as well as targeted grant funding to promote these strategies.
More information on the Secretarys Challenge can be found at insurekidsnow.gov.
Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are
available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Source: Business Wire