WASHINGTON, DC-A new analysis released by Families USA today shows that nearly one million enrollees in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) are in jeopardy of losing health coverage because of reductions in federal funding for the program.
The report reveals two major causes for this potential drop in children's health coverage. The first is a 26 percent reduction in federal funding for SCHIP during fiscal years 2002-2004. The second is a scheduled reversion of $2.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury of SCHIP funds previously allocated to the states. The report includes state-by-state data on how much SCHIP money each state stands to lose if these problems are not fixed.
"The State Children's Health Insurance Program has been successful at improving health coverage for millions of children, but there are still millions more in need," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. "Now is not the time for the federal government to turn its back on children's health coverage."
Legislation recently introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), and supported by the original co-sponsors of the SCHIP legislation, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), addresses both funding concerns by allowing states to retain the $2.8 billion in funds currently scheduled to be returned to the Treasury and by fixing the decrease in SCHIP funding over the next two years. That legislation is likely to be considered before Congress adjourns this year.
"Congress should act now so that the program's funding problems can be fixed and do not result in one million children losing their health coverage," said Pollack.
Through an analysis of five states (North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Kentucky, and Montana), the report examines the tough budgetary decisions that states are making that will reduce children's health coverage. These decisions include:
- freezing enrollment of new children or limiting time periods when children can enroll;
- increasing family premium requirements; and
- eliminating simplified enrollment procedures that make it easy for a family to enroll their children in SCHIP.
When SCHIP was enacted in 1997, there were 10 million uninsured children in the United States. Today, as SCHIP celebrates its fifth anniversary, more than 3.5 million low-income children are enrolled in this program.
The report is available on the Families USA web site at www.familiesusa.org.
