Congress will be voting soon on re-authorization and funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) by which states provide health coverage to children whose families are not poor enough for medicaid but can't get or can't afford health insurance. The program is currently underfunded so that not all kids who qualify are enrolled. Also the changing levels of funding mean that they sometimes move in and out of coverage, which means a huge waste of time and paperwork to re-enroll someone who was dropped for lack of funding.
If you are in the range of political spectrum that believes it's okay for the federal government to fund such things, and that health care for children is a good investment, now would be a good time to call or fax your congresscritters. (If you are opposed to such spending, please forget that you saw this )
CT has mentioned this program recently, though I don't remember the thread that it was in, so I thought there might be folks here who would be interested.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Yay, dkw! Thanks for bringing it up.
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Edited to clarify: This is a federal-state partnership program, in which (capped) matching federal funds are provided to states, and states are given a great deal of flexibility in designing programs to provide healthcare to underserved children. It was seen as a sort of testing ground for state-specific programs.
This has been in place as Title XXI of the Social Security Act since October 1, 1997, when the first funds were distributed. Dental services were optional, but most states provided some form of dental coverage.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
I love California's Healthy Families program. We would never be able to afford coverage for our kids, but after they turn one would not qualify for Medi-Cal for them. Because of Healthy Families, Emma has health, vision, and dental coverage, and Bridget will continue to have coverage, too.
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