HHS APPROVES NEVADA PLAN TO INSURE MORE CHILDREN

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced approval of Nevada's plan to expand health coverage for thousands of uninsured children through the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Nevada could receive as much as $30 million in new funds under the federal CHIP program -- the historic, bipartisan legislation signed last year by President Clinton. The CHIP law allocates $24 billion over the next five years to help states expand health insurance to children whose families earn too much for traditional Medicaid, yet not enough to afford private health insurance. Nevada officials estimate they will insure 43,500 children by October 1999 through its Nevada Check Up program. Nevada -- like all states with CHIP plans -- will receive federal matching funds only for actual expenditures on insuring children.

Nevada is the 30th CHIP plan to be approved in the 11 months since CHIP funds have been available. Together, these 29 states and Puerto Rico anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than 2.7 million currently uninsured children within the next three years.

"Too many working parents can't afford health care for their children, and too many children are at risk." Secretary Shalala said. "The Clinton Administration and the states are working together to give children the health care they need to live longer, healthier lives. That's good for all of us."

CHIP gives states three options for devising a plan to cover uninsured children: designing a new children's health insurance program; expanding current Medicaid programs; or a combination of both strategies. HHS must approve each state's plan before CHIP funds become available.

Nevada will use its CHIP allocation to create a separate state health insurance program, Nevada Check Up, to provide coverage to uninsured children from birth to age 18 whose family income is at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (the federal poverty level for a family of four is $16,450).

The benefit package is equivalent to the state's Medicaid program. The program will also charge premiums for participating families on a sliding scale based on income. Families with incomes at or below 150 percent of poverty will pay a premium up to of $10 per quarter; for families above 150 percent, but at or below 175 percent of poverty, the premium will be $25 per quarter; for families above 175 percent, the premium will be $50 per quarter. Cost sharing for all the families must not exceed the statutory cap of five percent of the family's annual income.

"The success of the CHIP program has shown an inspiring amount of cooperation between the federal government and the states," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which administers CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare. "It is through those efforts that we will realize the Administration's goal of providing health insurance to those who need it."

"We're pulling together to help hard-working, low-income parents give their kids the same kind of high quality health care others take for granted," said Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H., administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the agency working with HCFA and states to implement CHIP. "Free or low-cost health insurance is what families need to ensure their kids can grow up strong and healthy."

For the first year of the program, allotments totaling $4.3 billion are available to states whose plans are approved by HHS by Sept. 30, 1999. In addition to the 30 plans which have been approved -- Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois, New York, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Oregon, Texas, Idaho, Puerto Rico, Indiana, Utah, North Carolina, Minnesota, Maryland, Arkansas, Nebraska, Maine and Nevada -- these plans have been submitted: Tennessee, Vermont, Montana, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Georgia, Iowa, South Dakota, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, the Virgin Islands, Kansas, North Dakota, Arizona, Delaware, Mississippi and Louisiana.

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Note: HHS press releases are available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.hhs.gov.

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