Patrick Stresses Importance of Children’s Health Insurance Program
Patrick
New Bedford Standard Times
Matthew Huisman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/26/08
WASHINGTON – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick told a House hearing Tuesday that new federal rules restricting who can be covered under the federal-state children’s health insurance program could set back the state’s effort to provide coverage to children from low-income families.
“I am here to ask you not to undermine our success,” the Democratic governor said during testimony before the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Gov. Patrick, one of five governors testifying, urged the committee to repeal the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Aug. 17 directive, which does not allow states to insure children in families with a gross income above 250 percent of the federal poverty line. For a family of three, that would equate to $43,000 a year.
The directive would “impair the Commonwealth’s Medicaid and SCHIP [State Children’s Health Insurance Program] programs,” Gov. Patrick said.
According to Gov. Patrick, Massachusetts had previously been allowed to extend coverage to children in families living at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level.
“As a result, Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment has grown by 40,000 children, including 18,000 newly eligible because of the expansion from 200 to 300 percent” of the poverty line, Gov. Patrick said.
The governor said that 300,000 adults and children “who were uninsured last year are insured today, reducing our uninsured population by about half.”
The chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), said, under the new directive a state would have to prove that it has enrolled 95 percent of the children eligible in families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level before providing additional coverage. “By almost every account, there is no state that will be able to meet this requirement,” Pallone said.
Rather than cutting coverage for children, many states will use state funds to ensure that children do not lose insurance, said Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
“The administration’s ‘Aug. 17 directive will affect at least 26 states by this summer, causing states to roll back existing coverage and stop planned expansions,” Rep. Dingell said. “If this administration were interested in helping those with the lowest income, the president would not have vetoed the bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act that provided new incentives, tools and bonus payments to make sure states got the job done.”
After an hour of opening statements by a dozen House members, Rep. Pallone introduced the five-governor panel testifying before the subcommittee. Gov. Patrick was joined by Govs. Christine Gregoire (D-Wash.), Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) and Sonny Perdue (R-Ga.).
“Our success depends on the stability and reliability of the commitments the federal government has made to us,” Gov. Patrick testified. “A retreat in any of those commitments could have devastating effects on our progress, particularly our ability to cover families who have no affordable options in the unsubsidized private marketplace.”
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