Jan 17, 2008 4:32 pm US/Eastern
Spitzer To Expand Children's Health Care Budget
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ―
Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced Thursday that he will include $37 million in his budget proposal next week to expand health care coverage to about 70,000 more children.
He made the move despite the Bush administration's refusal to match the expansion with federal funds.
New York is among several states suing the Bush administration over restrictions on health insurance coverage for children.
Spitzer said the federal government would have contributed $19 million if the Bush administration had agreed to help fund expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
But Spitzer says the additional expense is a moral imperative the state must take on.
"We have now gotten to the point where we believe in the state of New York we should act," Spitzer said. "And even if Washington is unwilling, unable to understand how critically important it is that we expand this health care to our children, we will do so."
The system would expand health care coverage on a sliding scale to families with incomes between 250 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
Currently, children in families at 250 percent of the poverty level or below are entitled to coverage, but more than 300,000 eligible children are not enrolled. The state is trying to find new ways to reach out to those families. School health centers will make an effort to inform eligible families, and the state Health Department will attempt to make the enrollment process easier.
A family of four at 400 percent of the federal poverty level would make about $82,000 a year, and with the sliding scale would pay a $1,400 annual premium for coverage through the state.
"This is not a handout to those who are not working," Spitzer said. "This is helping the working middle class, those who are struggling."
The state's Child Health Plus program now covers about 396,000 children.
The lawsuit against the federal Department of Health and Human Services challenges new rules governing the SCHIP.
The states are seeking an injunction against new federal restrictions on eligibility and against what amounts to a limit on covering children from middle-income families who lack health insurance.
The new rules forbid states from providing health care unless a child has been without coverage for a year.
The program covers 6.6 million children nationwide from modest-income families that aren't poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.
Congress passed a bill last year that would add $35 billion to the SCHIP over five years to expand health coverage for children in families that cannot afford to buy private health insurance. A steep increase in cigarette taxes would pay for it.
President Bush vetoed the bill, arguing it was too costly. In addition to the lawsuit filed last year by New York, Illinois, Maryland and Washington, the parents of five New York children filed a federal suit Thursday in the Southern District of New York.
They argue that the federal government's decision to reject New York's plan is based on unlawfully adopted federal rules that are inconsistent with the federal SCHIP statute. The families also argue the administration violated the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires the government to adopt new rules only after public notice and comment.
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