Advocates express concern over reform proposal's changes to low-income children's coverage

Children's health advocates are concerned that a new health reform proposal by the Senate Finance Committee could jeopardize coverage of many low-income children now insured by the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which expires in 2013, Politico reports. The proposal would move those beneficiaries into new insurance exchanges, where they would receive coverage through their parents' policies. Advocates, and some alarmed Democratic legislators, say the intent is well meaning, but does not guarantee that children would not be left worse off by the overhaul. "A bloc of liberal senators and 150 organizations have called on Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to opt for continuity and maintain SCHIP as it is, at least until the kinks are worked out of the reformed system," Politico reports (Brown, 9/8).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.