Senators Call Upon President Clinton to Extend
Deadline for Using Children’s Health Insurance Funds
September 21, 2000

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), along with 59 of her Senate colleagues, has called upon President Clinton to extend the September 30th deadline for using unspent State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) funds by two years.

California will lose $597 million in Fiscal Year 1998 federal funds for the state’s Healthy Families program if this deadline is not extended. Nationwide, 41 states and the District of Columbia will lose $1.9 billion.

For a small monthly premium, Healthy Families offers medical, dental, and vision coverage to children who are under the age of 19 and whose families earn less than 250 percent of the federal poverty line ($42,625 for a family of four), but earn too much to qualify for no-cost Medi-Cal.

In a letter to President Clinton, the senators wrote: “Maintaining access to SCHIP funding is more important now than ever. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the number of children without health insurance increased from 9.8 million children in 1995 to almost 12 million children in 1999. This increase has occurred despite enactment of SCHIP in 1997. Although nearly 2 million children are enrolled in SCHIP, another 2 million are still eligible and without health insurance. States need your support in securing the funds necessary to reach out to and enroll vulnerable and needy children in SCHIP.”

“Without relief, 41 states and the District of Columbia could lose up to $1.9 billion for children’s health programs. A reduction of this magnitude would...hamper states’ ability to provide services for children already enrolled in SCHIP, and force states to scale back their outreach and enrollment efforts. The impact would be devastating.”

Under the legislation passed in 1998, SCHIP requires states to spend each year’s allotment in three years; if a state began its program in 1998, it has until the end of 2000 to spend its 1998 allotment. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have not been able to spend their 1998 allotment and will lose their unexpended funds on September 30th. Extending the deadline would allow these states to continue to use their funds to continue to enroll uninsured children.

Currently, there are 11 million uninsured children in America. Many states, however, have had difficulties conducting outreach and enrolling SCHIP-eligible children. For instance, in California, only 300,000 of the 500,000 eligible children have been signed up thus far.

To remedy this problem, California has shortened its application from 28 pages to 4 pages and now offers the application in 10 different languages. Outreach is also conducted now in more low-income targeted facilities. Furthermore, California recently expanded the eligibility requirements of the program to include children in families who earn less than 250 percent of the poverty line. Previously, the program only included families who earned less than 200 percent of the poverty line.

“We want to work together to ensure continued access to Fiscal Year 1998 SCHIP funding,” the senators concluded. “We stand ready to work with you to extend this year’s deadline, and thus allow states to keep and use their unexpended SCHIP allotments for an additional two years.”