HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today called on states and communities to join with HHS to redouble efforts to find and enroll the 5 million children who are currently eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), but are not yet covered. The Secretary issued this call to action as she opened the National Children’s Health Insurance Summit in Chicago, kicking off the nation’s largest campaign to find and enroll uninsured children in over a decade.
Much progress has been made in recent years, but the enactment of the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) creates new opportunities to move forward. At the same time, given the economic downturn, the need among families for affordable coverage for their children could not be greater. Not since the creation of CHIP in 1997 has the federal government, in conjunction with states, concentrated so many resources on the effort to find and enroll children who are needlessly going without health insurance coverage.
“As a society and as parents, we have no greater responsibility than to provide quality health care for our children,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Our charge here today is to get all eligible children covered to ensure they are healthy throughout their childhood. A healthy child is the block upon which all other successes are built, not just for the child, but for the nation they will lead in the future.”
In February, President Obama signed CHIPRA into law. The legislation fully funds CHIP over the next four years and devotes an unprecedented amount of federal funding to support outreach and enrollment efforts for both CHIP and Medicaid. Currently, Medicaid serves more than 32 million low-income American children while CHIP has over 7 million beneficiaries.
Today’s speech launched the three-day conference in Chicago sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that has brought together state Medicaid and CHIP officials, local government, community-based organizations, safety net providers and others who are working to promote enrollment in children’s health programs. These experts will exchange proven strategies for finding and enrolling children in health programs as well as removing program barriers that sometimes prevent children from staying in these programs despite continued eligibility.
Participants in the conference will also hear from experts on a wide range of specialized topics, such as reaching diverse or isolated populations, the usefulness of online applications and how to best work with managed care plans and other health care providers.