Advocates blame confusion about welfare, Medicaid for increasing number of unins
Advocates blame confusion about welfare, Medicaid for increasing number of uninsured children in PA, NJ
The number of children covered by government-funded health insurance declined in Pennsylvania last year, even as almost 13,500 were added to the rolls of the state's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
The boost in CHIP enrollment wasn't large enough to offset a drop in the number of children participating in Medicaid, down 18,000 to 689,000, reports The [Philadelphia] Inquirer.
While children's advocates suspect that welfare reform has deterred parents of eligible children from participating in Medicaid, state officials hypothesize that a healthy economy has brought private-sector health insurance to the families of former welfare recipients.
"I know that we will make every effort to keep everyone on," says Peg Dierkers, policy director for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare.
A more prevalent explanation among health policy analysts is that government officials and former welfare recipients alike often mistakenly believe that federal welfare reform curtailed Medicaid benefits as well as cash assistance.
"There may be more problems coming around as even greater numbers of families lose welfare," says Cindy Mann, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, DC.
Many parents lack job benefits
Experts cite studies showing it is unlikely that many children who leave Medicaid are getting health insurance through their parents' jobs. If their parents are working, the experts say, the jobs often are low-paying with few benefits.
"The problem is that many families seem to have lost their Medicaid coverage because they do not understand that coverage can continue, in most cases, even when welfare checks stop," says Lynn Yeakel, the Philadelphia-based regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Neighboring New Jersey also is struggling to keep children covered. The state's CHIP program, called NJ KidCare, signed up about 21,500 children since last year, according to state officials. At the same time, though, the Medicaid program lost about 28,000 children since 1997. The state even expanded the number of children eligible for Medicaid last year, but has continued to see enrollment fall, although more slowly.
About 200,000 Pennsylvania children and 150,000 New Jersey children who currently are not insured would qualify for government health insurance.
State officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are stepping up efforts to make sure all eligible children get health insurance. They are mailing out information, increasing television ads, and beefing up efforts to make sure children keep their Medicaid benefits when their parents leave welfare. In addition, each state received a first-round award in a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program called Covering Kids, an initiative targeted to increasing health insurance coverage among children. (See related story, above.)
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