Less than 100 days are left before insurance exchanges go live, the Department of Health and Human Services is awarding $32 million in state grants to help find and enroll children in Medicaid and CHIP.
One of the barriers to publicly-insuring children from low-income families has been varying public awareness of the programs' availability and understanding of eligibility. Another problem has been eligibility application processes that can vary even within states -- creating situations where families have to repeatedly submit documentation online or in-person and navigate several different state and private organizations.
The new round of grants, targeted at several different demographics and enrollment strategies, may help alleviate those barriers. Forty-one state agencies, community health centers, school-based organizations and non-profit groups in 22 states will share the $32 million.
Nine grants are going to CHIP outreach based in schools, three to enrollment streamlining projects, 13 to application assistance projects, eight to community outreach projects and eight to projects targeting children from communities with health coverage disparities.
"We are drawing from successful children's health coverage outreach and enrollment efforts to help promote enrollment this fall in Medicaid and the new health insurance marketplace," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a media release.
Under a "no wrong door approach," the insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, will be a primary enrollment avenue for both private qualified health plans, with premium assistance subsidies, and the public insurance programs Medicaid and CHIP. An individual or family should be able to type a few key points of information -- their family size and an estimated annual income -- and then be told in real-time whether they're eligible for Medicaid or subsidized private insurance.
HHS's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has been placing a greater emphasis on helping states streamline Medicaid and especially CHIP enrollment, with the national rate of uninsured children now standing at 6.6 percent -- down from 8.6 percent in 2009.
There are still about 5.5 million American children uninsured, as of 2011, according to a study late last year by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Almost half of those 5.5 million live in six states: Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Arizona and New York. Texas alone alone has close to a million uninsured children, almost 17 percent of the total nationwide -- and Texas, Florida and Georgia are not expanding Medicaid, which may leave some families with split coverage, depending on their children's eligibility.
The recent round of grants are part of $140 million in grants included in the Affordable Care Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. Among the new round of grants, several are going to those six states with most of the uninsured children.
In Texas, the Community Council of Greater Dallas is receiving $989,000, the Community Action Corporation of South Texas $989,000 and Gateway to Care $998,700. In Georgia, the United Way is receiving $999,900 and Family Intervention Specialists, Inc. is $667,300. In Florida, the University of South Florida is receiving $1 million.