Renewal of federal insurance program critical for state's children, Beebe says
Saturday, Jul 28, 2007

By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas' ability to ensure health care for its neediest children will be jeopardized if a federally-funded health insurance program is allowed to expire, Gov. Mike Beebe said Friday.

In his weekly radio address, Beebe called on Congress to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. Congress has been debating the future of the 10-year-old program, which provides federal matching funds to states for children's health care coverage.

The program will expire if it is not reauthorize by Sept. 30.

"This is one of our most critical programs and provides a safety net for caring for unserved and under-served children," Beebe said.

Beebe also joined with 42 other governors this week in sending a letter to House and Senate leaders urging reauthorization of the program, Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said.

In his radio address, the governor said SCHIP dollars allowed Arkansas to create the ARKids First program, which he said has reduced the state's population of uninsured children from 23 percent to 10 percent over the past 10 years, and the ARHealthNet program, which this year began assisting small businesses in making affordable health insurance available to low-income employees.

The state also uses SCHIP dollars for a program to provide prenatal care to undocumented immigrants.

The federal government's match through the program is 81 cents out of every dollar, according to the Arkansas Department of Human Services. The state currently receives $49 million a year in matching SCHIP funds.

"To allow the program to expire now would impact our state's ability to provide for those who are most in need," Beebe said. "I am committed to this cause and will work to ensure that a sensible reauthorization can be signed into law in a timely manner."

On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee voted 17-4 to approve legislation that would reauthorize SCHIP and increase the program's funding by $35 billion over five years. In the House, legislation introduced this week would increase funding by $50 billion over the same period.

The Bush administration supports reauthorizing the program but favors only a $5 billion increase. The administration says an increase of that size would enable all eligible children who currently are uninsured to receive health insurance but would not fund expansion of the program to serve people other than the original target group.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the original purpose of SCHIP was to provide health care coverage to children in families whose annual earnings fall below 200 percent of the federal poverty level - $41,300 for a family of four.

But many states use SCHIP dollars to provide coverage to adults and children whose families earn more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, according to the department.

Expanding the program to cover higher-income children and some adults "is crowding out private insurance," the department's release states.

State DHS spokeswoman Julie Munsell said the adults who benefit from the SCHIP-funded ARHealthNet program are the parents of the children who benefit from the ARKids First program.

"Keeping the family unit solvent and providing coverage for parents to be able to take care of their children is the reasoning for utilizing SCHIP funding," she said.

U.S. Sen Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said Bush's plan would cause 1 million children currently covered by SCHIP to be dropped from their health insurance coverage.

"Unfortunately, despite overwhelming bipartisan support, the president has threatened to veto the Finance Committee's bipartisan proposal," Lincoln said in a statement released by her Washington office. "In a time when more and more Americans are struggling to find affordable health care, I believe it is our moral obligation to ensure that our nation's children receive quality care to ensure a healthy future."

The state DHS anticipates a need for $116 million in SCHIP funding for the 2008 fiscal year, in part because the federal government is doing away with a policy that allowed states to submit claims retroactively, Munsell said.

As a result of the change, Arkansas will need funding not only for the coming year's needs but for the previous seven quarters, or one year and nine months, Munsell said.

The state has $56 million in unspent SCHIP money to carry into next year, Munsell said. If federal funding were to remain at the current level, the state's programs would experience an $11 million shortfall, she said. If federal funding were cut off completely, the shortfall would be $60 million, she said.

Copyright © Arkansas News Bureau, 2003 - 2006


http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/200 ... 42883.html