Children Qualified for SCHIP but Not Enrolled

Yesterday in the Ohio Health Policy Review I mentioned the new rules covering the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), stating that any state wanting to raise eligibility for the child health program above 250 percent of the poverty level must first show they have “enrolled at least 95 percent of children in the state below 200 percent of the federal poverty level” (FPL) who are eligible for either Medicaid or SCHIP.

A new article today describes how nearly 30 percent of children in the United States who are qualified for SCHIP are not enrolled ("Many Eligible for Child Health Plan Have No Idea" NY Times, Aug. 22, 2007).  This equals 1.7 million low-income children in the United States. The article states there is considerable debate about why these eligible children are not enrolled. Possible reasons include parents thinking they are not eligible because they have a job, language and immigration status barriers, and a refusal by some parents to take what they see as welfare.

Just over 5% of all children in Ohio, or 156,000 kids, lack health insurance (based on data from the 2004 Ohio Family Health Survey). For Ohio children below 200% of the FPL, 8.3% lack insurance (even though by income most of these kids should be qualified for SCHIP). While these rates are better than in most states, this means Ohio would still fail to reach the 95% mark designated by the new federal rules and may not be able to expand SCHIP as some politicians and advocacy groups had hoped.