Health Insurance For Kids
SCHIP—the
State Children’s Health Insurance Program—is helping kids across
America to grow up strong and healthy. Each state has a customized plan
that provides free or low-cost health insurance to children in working
families who would otherwise be without the financial means to obtain
coverage.
Efforts are underway to enroll more children in the program or in state Medicaid programs.
President Clinton and the National Governors' Association launched the Insure Kids Now campaign in February 1999. It includes:
- An Insure Kids Now Website that gives information on eligibility requirements for families, on-going outreach efforts, general SCHIP information, and links to State-specific Web pages. This website is sponsored by the Health Care Financing Administration, which administers SCHIP.
- A national toll-free 1-877-KIDS NOW hotline, which traces and connects callers directly to their respective state agency. Each agency is able to give specific information about the SCHIP plan for their State.
In addition, the Boost 4 Kids Network, organized by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, has created a useful webpage that has extensive resources for anyone looking for health insurance information in a specific state.
Background information on SCHIP is also available.
Successful Outreach
President Clinton praised the SCHIP program in the July 10, 2000 National Governors Association Annual Meeting. "We've now got over 2 million kids enrolled," he said. "I'm especially proud of the states that have found innovative ways to overcome the problems of signing kids up. And I always hate to mention some, for failure of not mentioning others, but I would like to acknowledge, for example, that Ohio has changed its system to make it easier for CHIP parents to mail in forms that are simpler. Indiana has actually gone out to schools and childcare centers and had a remarkable amount of success in signing people up. Virtually every state has done something innovative."
You’ll find
highlights of the states’ annual reports in the Health Care Financing
Administration’s preliminary
highlights (You will beed Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this pdf file.
It is available free from 
).
Do You Want to Help?
For information on helping SCHIP, visit the Insure Kids Now Website.
Online Messages about the Importance of Children's Health Insurance
Click on one of the links below to begin viewing or listening to the online messages.
- See a video message from the First Lady
- See a video message from the Secretary of Health and Human Services
- See and hear short messages on the importance of health insurance for your children
- Read a message from the Nation’s Governors
- Read remarks by the President and the First Lady at the Children's Health Outreach Event
In addition, you can hear an audio recording of Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala discussing SCHIP on the HHS Radio Line at 1-800-621-2984.
Other Sites That May Be of Interest
- Health Care Financing Administration - Informational Website on (SCHIP), intended to provide materials of interest to various audiences regarding the passage of SCHIP.
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Health Resources and Services Administration
- National Governors' Association Center for Best Practices
- Department of Education
- U.S. Census Bureau - Children Under 19 Years of Age, at or Below 200 Percent of Poverty and Without Health Insurance, Three Year Averages by State
August 2000