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Clinton pledges
easier access to kids’
health program

At least 2,427 Hawaii kids are
enrolled; it's hoped that two
to four times as many
will be this year

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Staff & wire reports

WASHINGTON -- More than 3 million children nationwide have been signed up for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but President Clinton said today that he will make it easier to find eligible children and sign them up.

"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," Clinton said in his weekly radio address.

The federal-state program, known as CHIP, was created in 1997 to help children in families with too much income to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance. States must provide matching money to use the federal funds.

State data show that more than 3.3 million children were signed up for CHIP last year, officials said. That is a 70 percent increase over 1999.

To help find more eligible children, Clinton plans to issue rules allowing schools to use school lunch data to track down students.

Children from low-income families are eligible for free or subsidized lunches at school.

Clinton said he also will allow parents to enroll their children in CHIP or Medicaid when they fill out an application at child care centers, school nurse offices and other convenient places. "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," he said.

In Hawaii, after a slow start, CHIP enrolled 2,427 low-income children from July 1 to Sept. 15. Officials hope to sign up two to four times that number in the coming year.

Hawaii is eligible to receive more than $10 million in federal funds for the program during the current federal fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. The funds are dependent on matching funds from the state.

Children whose families have income up to 200 percent of the poverty level are eligible for CHIP. For example, a three-member family earning $26,000 a year could qualify for CHIP benefits.

Clinton said, "The success of CHIP is particularly impressive when you consider that the program has only been up and running for three years."

However, he said, more children could benefit from the program. "In most of these cases, parents just don't know about the benefits or mistakenly think their children aren't eligible."

"Also, in some states the application process is simply too daunting. As a nation we must do more to reach out to these families."

The president added that his new rules will make it possible for more employers to provide health coverage to the children of their low-wage workers, with much of the cost picked up by CHIP.

CHIP application forms and information are available on the Web at www.coveringkids.com., or by calling ASK-2000 (275-2000).