This is why , in some cases States cannot be trusted.


WASHINGTON -

States' efforts to expand a popular health insurance program triggered new federal policies that will limit the program's reach, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Thursday.

The new guidelines disclosed last week were criticized by Democratic lawmakers as well as by some governors from both political parties.

Under the guidelines, many children would have to be uninsured for at least one year before they could enroll in the State Children's Health Insurance Program.


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If at least 95 percent of the eligible population is already enrolled in public health coverage, then states could relax that waiting period.

That's the problem. The states aren't getting the eligble kids enrolled in the program, yet they want more funding.

States are always looking for more funds for their "General Fund" and that means the money goes wherever they want it and SCHIP is just the cash cow they are looking for.

Here is part of the problem.

Only nine states and the District of Columbia administer SCHIP solely as a Medicaid expansion, relying on the same benefits and provider networks but applying different eligibility rules. In all other states, certain populations are enrolled in a separate SCHIP program, with more limited benefits and a different provider network, and some families are required to pay copayments and premiums

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Good! looks likje the admin of the program is for profit.

From what I gather it's the states who are dropping the ball where this program is concerned. They aren't getting the number of kids enrolled to match the level of funding they want.

Yep, it like any of the Repub programs, it is about numbers and cas,

With the number of kids uninsured growing, it was a band-aid program at best.

An update on the SCHIP program.


Two Democratic and two Republican senators have introduced legislation to nullify new restrictions imposed by federal officials August 17 on the ability of states to enroll children in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The rules would essentially prevent state SCHIP programs from enrolling uninsured children from families with household incomes above 250 percent of the federal poverty level, the senators said in a joint statement late Wednesday.


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“In my state of Maine, a family faced with purchasing a policy on the individual market could face a cost well in excess of $24,000 a year,” Snowe said

I can testify to that.

Since healthcare sucks and it is being talked abvout a bunch, but how far will the talk go? it has been a prob for 20 yrsa and we are no more closer to solving the prob. I wangt to see change, but I fear all I wilkl get is the same bullshit that I have been fed of years.

From what I gather the vote on most of the health care bills is split close to party lines so the veto is part of the equasion on this issue also.

Party lines? God I hate that term! I mean these a/holes will vote themselves a pay raise but not do the right thing for the American people and they are re-elected time and time again. I question the sanity of the voter.

Others are starting to get on the bandwagon on the program.


Governor Deval Patrick yesterday called on President Bush and Congress to revoke new rules he said would deny health insurance to thousands of Massachusetts children and hurt the state's effort to provide coverage for all its residents.

The restrictions imposed by the Bush administration are "dumb" and would "weaken, if not kill" the State Children's Health Insurance Program, Patrick said. The national program, funded jointly by the state and federal governments, covers 6.6 million children nationally and 90,500 in Massachusetts.

"It's a step in the wrong direction and has to be prevented," Patrick said at a news conference at the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain


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Governor Deval Patrick yesterday called on President Bush and Congress to revoke new rules he said would deny health insurance to thousands of Massachusetts children and hurt the state's effort to provide coverage for all its residents.

State governments aren't doing their share by getting eligible children enrolled, yet they want funding for unenrolled kids. Get off your duff and get them into the program then complain.