Date: Tuesday, August 25, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145

HHS APPROVES SOUTH DAKOTA'S PLAN
TO INSURE MORE CHILDREN

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

South Dakota could receive as much as $7.5 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. South Dakota officials estimate they will insure more than 7,000 children in the first year of their CHIP program.

South Dakota is the 31st CHIP plan to be approved in the 11 months since CHIP funds have been available. Together, these 30 states and Puerto Rico anticipate providing health insurance coverage for more than two 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.

South Dakota will use its CHIP allocation to expand its Medicaid program by increasing income eligibility limits for children ages 6 to 18 from the current limit of 100 percent of poverty to 133 percent (the federal poverty level for a family of four is $16,450).

The benefit package for children enrolled in CHIP will be the same as that offered other children in the state's Medicaid program. Families will not be charged for medical care under this CHIP program.

"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 31 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, Nevada and South Dakota -- these plans have been submitted: Tennessee, Montana, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, the Virgin Islands, Kansas, North Dakota, Arizona, Delaware, Mississippi and Louisiana.

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