Uninsured Kids Get a Booster Shot

President Clinton announced Saturday that the government will open a special campaign via school lunch programs and child care centers to enroll as many as 2 million additional children in state health insurance programs.

More than 3 million children already are participating in the programs, but many more from moderate-income families are eligible.

“In most of these cases, parents just don’t know about the benefits, or mistakenly think their children aren’t eligible,” the president said in his weekly radio address.

In announcing the new initiative, Clinton simply was speeding up an ongoing process by authorizing states to undertake new efforts to find eligible children. His order also addresses one of the consistent themes of his presidency: making health insurance available to more Americans. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program is designed to cover uninsured youngsters up to age 18. Many of them are in families whose parents are working but do not get health coverage through their employers. These families make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor, but too little to afford to buy their own health insurance.

State governments are responsible for enrolling children in the program, and eligibility standards vary from state to state. But because the program’s coverage is largely funded with federal dollars, the cost to participants is low.

California’s version of the program, called Healthy Families, costs participants between $4 and $9 a month per child. Children in families with incomes of up to 250% of the federal poverty standard--$35,376 a year for a family of three people--are eligible for Healthy Families coverage.

“As a nation, we must do more to reach out to these families so that their children will get health care coverage too,” the president said.

Insurance coverage for children keeps them healthier and reduces the total bill for health spending, the president noted.

“We know that when uninsured children get health coverage, they go to the doctor’s office more often and to the emergency room less often; and they’re less likely to be hospitalized for conditions that could have been treated earlier, and less expensively, outside a hospital,” he said.

To enroll more children, Clinton said, “we have to go where the children are--that’s in the schools.”

About 60% of the nation’s children who lack health insurance are currently participating in school lunch programs.

Under the rule announced Saturday, schools will give information on these children--the names and addresses of their families--to the state agencies operating the health insurance program. The state agencies will then contact parents to inform them of the low-cost program and their children’s eligibility for it.

Parents also will be allowed to enroll their children in the insurance program at child care centers, the offices of school nurses and “other convenient places,” Clinton said. “No longer will they have to wait weeks, or even months, while their applications are being processed before they can get health care for their children.”

In a separate but related initiative, Clinton said the federal government would provide public money to help some employers provide insurance to their workers’ children. This would bring a subsidy to the workplace to encourage more companies to offer help with insurance costs for low-wage workers, he said.

The campaign also will emphasize that the insurance for children is not charity or welfare. Instead, it is regular health insurance, with most of the cost paid by the taxpayers.

Sometimes, parents mistakenly confuse the children’s health program with Medicaid (called Medi-Cal in California), the federal-state program that pays medical bills for some of the poorest citizens. Seeking to avoid the stigma associated with a welfare-type program, the families may not realize they are eligible for the insurance for their children.

The Clinton administration is giving the states extra money to help them develop innovative ways to reach eligible families and persuade them to join the program.

The nationwide toll-free information number, (877) KIDS NOW, has received more than 400,000 calls in the last two years.

California has enrolled 477,000 children in Healthy Families. Parents get to choose among health plans, including health maintenance organizations, that will provide care for their children. The maximum payment for parents is $27 a month, regardless of the number of children in the family.

California parents also are responsible for a $5 co-payment each office visit. Families that make an advance payment of three months’ premiums receive the fourth month of coverage free.

The number for information in the state is (800) 880-5305. The Web site is https://www.healthyfamilies.ca.gov.