Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Senate votes to expand children's health insurance
There may be some relief soon for parents who worry that their children are not covered by health insurance. The House and Senate have both voted to expand a children’s health insurance program to cover an additional four million uninsured children. As a Massachusetts attorney concentrating in children’s issues, Thomas Kiley, is concerned about the large numbers of children who are uninsured.
According to a Washington Post article by Kevin Freking, the bill was sponsored by Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee. All the Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee voted for the bill, as well as Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Similar legislation passed the House last week by a vote of 289-139.
About seven million people, the vast majority of them children, get health benefits through State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP). Legislators say the additional spending would allow about 4 million additional uninsured children to join the program. The program is designed to provide health insurance to children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.
Baucus’s bill adds $31.5 billion to the SCHIP. Although the bill originally did not include coverage of legal immigrants, an amendment doing that offered by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., was approved by a 12-7 vote. Current law requires a five-year waiting period before legal immigrants become eligible for coverage under Medicaid and SCHIP.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats joined in passing a spending increase for the children’s health program. The bill would raise the federal excise tax on cigarettes by 61 cents to $1-a-pack to pay for the SCHIP expansion. The bill before the Senate Finance Committee also calls for the tobacco tax increase.
President Obama has said he hopes the Senate acts with the “same sense of urgency so that it can be one of the first measures I sign into law when I am president. In this moment of crisis, ensuring that every child in America has access to affordable health care is not just good economic policy, but a moral obligation we hold as parents and citizens."
For the state of Massachusetts, the SCHIP program is administered by MassHealth. According to their website, MassHealth pays for health care for certain low- and medium-income people living in Massachusetts, including a program for individuals who are HIV positive. MassHealth also manages a variety of programs that benefit children. MassHealth offers a broad range of health-care services by paying for part or all of a MassHealth member's health insurance, or paying medical providers for services given to MassHealth members.
The Children's Medical Security Plan (CMSP) is a health insurance program that provides uninsured (except MassHealth Limited) children and adolescents access to primary and preventive services, regardless of family income. The Healthy Start Program (HSP) promotes early, comprehensive, and continuous prenatal care for low-income, uninsured (except MassHealth Limited) pregnant women. The Special Kids/Special Care Pilot Program is designed to provide high-quality, cost-effective, coordinated medical care to children in foster care with special health-care needs.
For more information on the Massachusetts State Children’s Health Insurance Program, go to www.mass.gov.
