Lugar Child Health Insurance Provision Included In SCHIP Bill

Press Release

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization that passed the Senate last night included language from U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar's Children's Express Lane to Improve Health Coverage and Program Integrity Act, legislation that Sens. Lugar and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) have introduced in previous years to increase health coverage for uninsured, low-income children, simplify state administrative processes, and reduce paperwork burdens for families and the government. Lugar supported the SCHIP bill that passed the Senate by a vote of 66-32.

"Many children already eligible for public assistance programs like school lunches are also eligible to receive health care under the Children's Health Insurance Program. The difficulty comes when red tape and bureaucracy prevent the sharing of information between the two programs," Lugar said. "It is important that we give states greater flexibility in the ways they can enroll uninsured children by eliminating duplicative, multi-agency efforts to collect and verify income and resource eligibility. Passage of the Express Lane provisions in the SCHIP bill is an important step forward to help eligible children have access to health benefits."

The Express Lane would give states the option of establishing that Medicaid or SCHIP financial eligibility rules are satisfied when a family presents proof that their child is already enrolled in another public program with comparable income guidelines. The bill does not affect other, non-income eligibility requirements and maintains existing quality control measures. The result will be a more efficient, streamlined application process that will reduce costs across a number of federal programs including: the National School Lunch Program, the Food Stamp Program, the Summer Feeding Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

Express Lane builds on the Lugar-Carson Access to Children's Health Insurance Program Act, introduced by Lugar and former Rep. Julia Carson (D-IN) to allow for greater use of school lunch participation records to identify eligible children. The bill encouraged greater cooperation among schools, childcare facilities and WIC clinics to enroll children eligible for Medicaid and SCHIP. This bipartisan bill was included in the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 passed by Congress on May 25, 2000, and signed into law by the President.

Congress created the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997 to provide essential health insurance coverage to low-income children.

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