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Protecting our children is the first goal of most parents. Love, responsibility and common sense will do the job when they’re well, but when they’re sick or injured, it takes cash.
The poorest kids are covered by Medicaid, the jointly-funded Federal-State health insurance program implemented in 1965. It is state-administered and protects some thirty-six million people, many of whom are children. Medicaid offers children extensive health care benefits; the administrators feel that their programs are, in some cases, even better than benefits offered by private employers. However, while eligibility requirements and services provided vary widely from state to state and even year to year, in all the states, Medicaid programs have one thing in common. Parents have to be pretty much broke for their children to qualify. So while it can be very helpful to some, it’s clearly only a partial solution.
In 1998, more than ten million children in the United States were uninsured; that’s a lot of families that have to save up for the cast if their kid breaks an arm. These are typically families with working parents whose income, no matter how paltry, disqualifies them from Medicaid and who are offered either no or prohibitively expensive health benefits from their employers. Immunizations are obtained either free or at nominal cost
from public health departments. And they depend on hospital emergency rooms for fractures, stitches, high fevers, all the acute disasters of childhood and adolescense.
The emergency room can patch ‘em up, but when the bills from the hospital itself, the doctors, radiologists, et al, come rolling in, they can be so overwhelming that even the most well-meaning and conscientious can’t pay them. And conditions that could be diagnosed by a family physician during regular check-ups are left untreated until the child becomes dangerously ill, with the possibility of permanent damage.
In 1998, President Clinton announced that new and vigorous efforts were being undertaken to insure the health of the nations’s children. At that time, more than three
million children were eligible for, but were not receiving, Medicaid. Either their parents were unaware of the requirements or were unable to fill out the application. The President’s 1999 budget invested more than 900 million dollars over five years in outreach programs for schools, daycare centers, and state agencies to inform all parents of
what help was available. Large contributions by the private sector, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (thirteen million dollars over the next decade), the Kaiser Family Foundation (ten million dollars over ten years) were pledged to coordinate outreach initiatives. America’s Promise, and the American Academy of Pediatrics took the fight to pharmaceutical companies SmithKline Beecham and Schering Plough and worked with local communities. And a major new program (S-CHIP---the State
Children’s Health insurance Program) to protect the health of all of America’s children was launched.
CHIP was designed to cover children from working families whose incomes were too high to qualify them for Medicaid, but too low for them to afford private health
insurance. Twenty-four billion dollars (over five years) was made available to the states; they now had both the funds and the encouragement they needed. Alabama, Colorado,
and South Carolina were the first states to come in to the program; by the year 2000, every state had CHIP porgrams in place and approximately two and a half million kids
were enrolled. The 2000 Census revealed a 1.7 million decline in uninsured Americans between ‘98 and ‘99; happily, two-thirds of the newly insured were children. A
combination of aggressive state-by-state television advertising, the availability of a nationwide toll-free number to obtain information, and willing and
enthusiastic Health and Human Services workers and other professionals had gotten the word out to parents just about everywhere---You can insure your children!
Here’s an overview of the CHIP programs in a few states...
The state of Washington offers (for premiums of $10 per child/per month, $30 family maximum per month, five dollar doctor office visits, free visits for well child
checks or immunizations, five dollar prescriptions for non-generic drugs (generic drugs are free), and twenty-five dollar emergency room visits. The most that families have to pay for premiums and copays, over a 12-month period, are $300 for one child in CHIP, $600 for two children, and $900 for three or more children. Income eligibility standards
are monthly incomes for two person families of $2,344, three person, $2,948, four people, $3,553, etc.
In Georgia, Peach Care requires a small monthly premium of $7.50 for kids 6 and older (under 5, it’s free), but no more than $15.00 monthly per family with incomes
ranging from $1,876 for a family of two to $4,676 for a family of eight.
In Connecticut, 2 person families can make up to $33,750 annually and still qualify for the HUSKY plan, and even those whose income is higher than the charted
amounts are encouraged to apply, due to possible changes in the state economy.
And here’s more good news. In September of this year, the President proposed that seventy-six billion dollars over the next ten years be invested to provide insurance, not just to poor children, but also to their parents. What a relief that would be to all those
who work so hard but live in fear of an accident or illness that could destroy their families’ security and happiness.
For more information about Medicaid or the CHIP program in your state, contact the offices listed below, or your local Department of Health and Human Services. And
you and your kids, be well.
Alabama Department of Public Health
RSA Tower Suite 1350
P.O. Box 303017
Montgomery, AL 36130-3017
Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
P.O. Box 110601
Juneau, AK 99811-0601
Arizona Health Care
801 East Jefferson Street
Phoenix, AZ 85002-5520
Arkansas Department of Human Services
Donaghey Plaza South
P.O. Box 1437
Little Rock, AR 72203-1437
California Department of Health Services
714 P. Street, Room 1253
Sacramento, CA 95814
Colorado Dept. of Care Policy and Financing
1575 Sherman Street, Fourth Floor
Denver, CO 80203-1714
Connecticut Department of Social Services
25 Sigourney Street
Hartford, CT 06106-5033
Delaware Department of Health and Social Services
P.O. Box 906, Lewis Building
1901 North DuPont Highway
New Castle, DE 19720
District of Columbia Department of Human Services
2100 ML King Jr. Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20020
Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
2727 Mahan Drive, Building 3
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Georgia Medicaid Eligibility and Quality Control
Department of Medical Assistance
2 Peachtree Street, NW
39th Floor
Atlanta, GA 30303-3159
Hawaii Department of Human Services
P.O Box 339
Honolulu, HI 96809-0339
Idaho Division of Medicaid Administration
Department of Health and Welfare
P.O. Box 83720, Third Floor Boise, ID 83720-0036
Illinois Department of Public Aid
201 South Grand Avenue East
Springfield, IL 62763
Indiana Children’s Health Insurance Program
Department of Health
402 West Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Iowa Department of Human Services
Hoover State Office Building
Fifth Floor
Des Moines, IA 50319-0114
Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services
915 S.W. Harrison Street, Room 628-S, 651-S
Topeka, KS 66612-1570
Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services
275 East Main Street
Frankfort, KY 40621
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
P.O. Box 2870
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-2870
Maine Department of Human Services
State House Station 11
35 Anthony Ave., Pella Building
Augusta, ME 04333
Maryland Medical Care Policy Administration
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Herbert R. O’Connor Building
201 West Preston Street
Fifth Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201
Massachusetts Division of Medical Assistance
600 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111
Michigan Department of Community Health
P.O. Box 30479
Lansing, MI 48909-7979
Minnesota Department of Human Services
444 Lafayette Road
Sixth Floor
St. Paul, MN 55155-3852
Mississippi Office of the Governor
Director of Medicaid
Suite 801
Robert E. Lee Building
239 North Lamar StreetJackson, MS 39201-1399
Missouri Department of Social Services
P.O. 6500
615 Howerton Court
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Montana Health Policy and Services Division
Department of Public Health and Human Services
Cogswell Building, 1400 Broadway
P.O. Box 202951
Helena, MT 59620-2951
Nebraska Kids Connection
HHS Finance and Support
P.O. Box 95026
Lincoln, NE 68509-5026
Nevada Division of Health Care Financing and Policy
2527 North Carson Street
Carson City, NV 89710
New Hampshire Office of Health Management
Department of Health and Human Services
6 Hazen Drive
Concord, NH 03301-6505
New Jersey KidCare
Department of Human Services
P.O. Box 712, 7 Quakerbridge Plaza
Trenton, NJ 08625-0712
New Mexico Medical Assistance Division
Human Services Department
P.O. Box 2348
Santa Fe, NM 87504-2348
New York Bureau of Health Economics
Corning Tower, Empire State Plaza
Room 1119
Albany, New York 12237
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
1985 Umstead Drive
P.O. Box 29529
Raleigh, NC 27626-0529
North Dakota Department of Human Services
600 East Boulevard Avenue
Department 325
Bismarck, ND 58505-0261
Ohio Department of Human Services
30 East Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43266-0423
Oklahoma Health Care Authority
4545 North Lincoln Boulevard
Suite 124
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Oregon Department of Human Resources
Human Resources Building
500 Summer Street, N.E., Third Floor
Salem, OR 97310-1015
Pennsylvania Department of Insurance
1345 Strawberry Square
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Rhode Island Department of Human Services
600 New London Avenue
Cranston, RI 02920
South Carolina Children's Health Programs
Department of Health and Human Services
1801 Main Street, 11th Floor
Columbia, SC 29202-8206
South Dakota Office of Medical Services
Kneip Building
700 Governors Drive
Pierre, SD 57501-2291
Tennessee Bureau of TennCare
Department of Health
729 Church Street
Nashville, TN 37247-6501
Texas Health and Human Services Commission
P.O. Box 13247
Austin, TX 78711
Utah Children's Health Insurance Program
1385 South State Street, Suite 258
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Vermont Department of Social Welfare
103 South Main Street
Waterbury, VT 05671-1201
Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services
600 East Broad Street
Suite 1300
Richmond, VA 23219
West Virgina Children's Health Insurance Program
State Capitol Complex
Building One, Room E-119
Charleston, West Virginia 25305
Wisconsin Bureau of Health Care Financing
One West Wilson Street, Room 250
Madison, WI 53701
Wyoming Division of Public Health
Hathaway Building, Fourth Floor
Cheyenne, WY 82002
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