Children’s advocates say they are generally supportive of the health reform bill passed by the U.S. House, but they’re hoping the Senate will change it to assure no abrupt changes for families with youngsters enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
In Kansas, that program, combined with children’s Medicaid, is known as HealthWave.
Congress earlier this year passed a bill expanding the reach of CHIP and President Obama quickly signed it into law. That broke the stalemate created when President George W. Bush repeatedly vetoed CHIP expansion during his final year in office.
Advocates are still pleased with that victory earlier this year and now say they are fearful that some of those gains could be lost under the health reform plan approved in the House.
They say the bill could make health insurance more costly for the parents of many of the nation’s children currently enrolled in CHIP.
State to revamp HealthWave sign-up
Moms share HeathWave experiences
The House bill and the leading proposals being considered in the Senate would move children currently in CHIP into the private insurance market where plans would be sold in a regulated exchange. The government would continue to subsidize premiums for families earning between 150 percent and 400 percent of federal poverty guidelines, or $73,240 a year for a family of three.
But advocates said many parents could end up paying more to cover their children than they currently do under CHIP.
“On the House side, the CHIP program would be repealed Dec. 31, 2013 and then on Jan. 1, 2014, kids are transitioned into the exchanges,” said Carla Plaza, senior director of government affairs and policy for Voices for America’s Children. “This is where our concern comes in. Right now, families in CHIP are paying no more than 5 percent in out-of-pocket costs. However, depending on income, under the House plan they would end up paying between 5 percent and 35 percent. We want to make sure that if Congress decides to let CHIP expire that it makes sure the exchanges are set up so that families receive comparable benefits and affordability. We want to make sure the cost sharing and premium structure is pretty comparable, if not better, than CHIP.”
The group sent a letter Nov. 6 to Congress expressing its concerns.
Other advocacy groups have similar worries.
“CHIP has some very strong cost sharing protections in terms of what families have to pay to get their children health care and in exchange for that, right now, it’s not clear how those protections would be comparable,” in the health reform plans, said Dawn Horner, senior program director at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “So the discussion is do we continue CHIP to ensure the children have those protections before we send them all to the exchange?”
According to estimates by the Kansas Health Policy Authority about 40,000 Kansas children currently in HealthWave would move into private plans under the leading reform proposals.
-Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at mshields@khi.org or at 785-233-5443, ext. 123.