Kids’ Health Care to Be Studied

President Clinton will dispatch teams of federal officials to each state to examine their efforts at protecting the health insurance coverage of children whose parents no longer receive welfare payments, a White House official said Saturday.

The president was expected to announce the effort today in a speech before the National Governors Assn. in St. Louis.

State and local officials are finding that children eligible for assistance under the Children’s Health Insurance Program are not receiving all the benefits to which they are entitled since welfare reforms began three years ago.

Clinton is expected to focus his speech primarily on budget issues, taking advantage of what White House officials believe is a distance between Republican chief executives in the states and their GOP colleagues in Congress over federal payments to the states.

“They’re upset, a little worried, about what the Republicans in Congress are doing,” a Clinton aide said. The president was in Little Rock on Saturday night to speak at a fund-raising dinner for Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

The new federal effort is being undertaken to encourage states to take advantage of provisions in the welfare reform program that in some cases may be underutilized.

For instance, the welfare law set aside $500 million to help states identify children eligible for the Medicaid assistance and make sure they receive it, but only $39 million has been spent. For 29 states, the aid will not be available after this year.

In addition, the federal government has not received complete information from 20 states on the number of children enrolled in the health insurance program, and a greater number hasn’t reported on those taking part in Medicaid.