Children’s Health Coverage Seen at Risk
Plans to increase eligibility for state-federal program collide with tight guidelines from Bush administration.
At a time when several states and both houses in Congress are pushing to expand a children’s health-insurance program partially financed by the federal government, the Bush administration’s new guidelines restricting enrollment have drawn criticism from school officials and health advocates, who warn that children will lose access to insured medical care.
The $25 billion-a-year State Children's Health Insurance Program , or SCHIP, is intended for children in families that earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid but may find it hard to afford private health insurance.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in an Aug. 17 letter , told states that they cannot enroll children from higher-income families—those with income above 250 percent of the federal poverty line—unless the states can prove that 95 percent of their poorest children are already covered...
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