|
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 ADOBE).
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.
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
August 2000
|