Families USA Special Report September 2002
Children Losing Health Coverage
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), now five years old, has made rapid progress in reducing the number of children without health coverage. By December 2001, there were approximately 3.5 million low-income children enrolled in SCHIP. Despite this record of success, and despite the large numbers of children still in need of health insurance coverage, SCHIP’s progress may now be reversed. A combination of factors – pending reductions in federal SCHIP funding, the expected reversion of previously allocated federal SCHIP funds back to the U.S. Treasury, and growing state budget crises – is likely to reduce program enrollment and increase the number of uninsured children. The Bush Administration has estimated that SCHIP enrollment will drop by 900,000 between fiscal years 2003 and 2006; the worsening fiscal outlook in the states suggests that this projection may underestimate those losses. This anticipated decline in SCHIP coverage would take place at a particularly inauspicious time, as health care costs and unemployment are rising.
For the full report: http://www.familiesusa.org/SCHIPreport.pdf
Comment: It is very unfortunate that the one significant success in expanding coverage, SCHIP, is now threatened with reversals. Our piecemeal policies to expand coverage have been ineffective. A decade of prosperity has only resulted in an expansion of the numbers of uninsured. And now we are faced with an explosion in the numbers of under-insured as policies are adopted to shift risk to those with coverage.
There is some hope of ameliorating this one blip in SCHIP. Quoting further from the Families USA report:
“Several senators, including Senators Jay Rockefeller and Lincoln Chafee, as well as the original sponsors of SCHIP (Senators Orrin Hatch and Edward Kennedy), have recognized this problem and are working to fix it. Legislation on this matter is likely to be considered before Congress adjourns this fall.”
So we may be able to apply one more patch to our sieve of health care coverage. But our current policies can result only in greater increases in financial barriers to care. Let’s throw out the patch kit and adopt policies that would assure that our abundant health care resources are accessible and affordable for everyone. An equitably funded, publicly administered, universal health insurance program is precisely what we now need.