Congresswoman Castor And CFO Sink Work To Expand SCHIP To More Children

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As Congress works on renewing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor and state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink proposed a plan today that will expand health insurance coverage to more of Florida’s and the nation’s children. The plan was outlined in a letter to President-Elect Obama.

Under existing rules, states must provide a match to the federal dollars they receive for children’s health insurance. But as states grapple with multibillion-dollar budget deficits, state officials are having a hard time finding the funding to provide the match.

Castor and Sink propose a one-year waiver for states to provide the match if they meet both of the following criteria:

• The state’s number of insured children must fall in the lowest quartile nationwide and
• Have a minimum of a 10 percent projected budget deficit in the upcoming fiscal year.

Florida meets both criteria, with roughly 800,000 uninsured children in the state, or 18.8 percent. That is the second-highest percentage of uninsured children in the country. Likewise, Florida’s projected budget gap for fiscal year 2010 is nearly $6 billion, or about 25 percent of the general fund.

For every 29 cents Florida contributes to the insurance program, the federal government provides 71 cents.

As unemployment soars, forcing more people to turn toward food stamps, children, too, will bear the brunt of this economic crisis. Providing comprehensive and accessible health coverage for children is a priority and can go a long way toward helping families make ends meet.

And, a newly released Families USA report found that unemployment benefits don’t even cover the cost of COBRA.

Castor has been working to expand and improve the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, since her first term. One of the first bills she filed outlined ways to facilitate the enrollment process so parents can more easily sign their children up for the insurance program. One idea is to develop an automatic enrollment process, or “express lane,” for children who already qualified for programs such as free lunch.