Question
Health Care > Universal Healthcare > Medicaid
Expand Medicaid and SCHIP coverage by reducing regulations and turning Medicaid into block grants
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Background
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is a federally-funded program that provides health insurance for children in need. SCHIP was signed into law in August of 1997 with $40 billion in funds for 10 years.
SCHIP, while funded though the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is administered by state governments. Each state receives an annual allotment that may be applied under broad federal guidelines. States have three years to use their allotted funds before they are reallocated to another state. Each state determines the unique design of their SCHIP program including: eligibility, benefit packages, and operating procedures.
SCHIP covered 6.9 million children at some point during Federal fiscal year 2006, and every state has an approved plan. States are given flexibility, and an enhanced match is paid to states. Some states have received Section 1115 demonstration authority to use SCHIP funds to cover the parents of children receiving benefits from both SCHIP and Medicaid, pregnant women, and other adults. However, the program is already facing funding shortfalls in several states. Attempts to expand funding for the program have met with political controversy amidst studies that debate the program's fiscal impacts. A proposal recently passed in the Congress to reauthorize and expand SCHIP from an average of $5 billion yearly to approximately $12 billion yearly over the next five years was vetoed by George W. Bush on October 3, 2007, and an attempt to override the veto failed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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SCHIP, while funded though the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is administered by state governments. Each state receives an annual allotment that may be applied under broad federal guidelines. States have three years to use their allotted funds before they are reallocated to another state. Each state determines the unique design of their SCHIP program including: eligibility, benefit packages, and operating procedures.
SCHIP covered 6.9 million children at some point during Federal fiscal year 2006, and every state has an approved plan. States are given flexibility, and an enhanced match is paid to states. Some states have received Section 1115 demonstration authority to use SCHIP funds to cover the parents of children receiving benefits from both SCHIP and Medicaid, pregnant women, and other adults. However, the program is already facing funding shortfalls in several states. Attempts to expand funding for the program have met with political controversy amidst studies that debate the program's fiscal impacts. A proposal recently passed in the Congress to reauthorize and expand SCHIP from an average of $5 billion yearly to approximately $12 billion yearly over the next five years was vetoed by George W. Bush on October 3, 2007, and an attempt to override the veto failed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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