07:36 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 29, 2007
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – Texas is expanding a popular health insurance program for low-income children.
Though changes officially kick in Saturday, state workers already have begun using new rules passed by the Legislature for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
The state expects enrollment to increase by 20,000 youngsters immediately, as a three-month waiting period for new applicants disappears for most.
"We expect the [legislative] changes to lead to an increase of about 130,000 children over the next two years," Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said Tuesday.
Current enrollment is 300,000, down from about 507,000 four years ago, when lawmakers and Gov. Rick Perry cut CHIP to help bridge a $10 billion budget shortfall.
CHIP is a state-federal program designed to help working poor families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance. Congress and President Bush disagree over extending the program, which is set to expire this fall.
State GOP leaders, though, have tired of criticism about CHIP cuts, which last year helped Democrats whittle Republicans' House majority by seven seats.
Bowing to pressure from physicians, hospitals and children's advocates, lawmakers and the governor last spring agreed to undo most of the 2003 cuts. The bill that takes effect Saturday allows families to renew coverage annually – as they did between 2000 and 2003 – instead of every six months. Lawmakers who pushed for the change said it will make sure that seasonal fluctuations in income don't make children temporarily ineligible and will lift a paperwork burden for many parents.
"We estimate that the change from 12 to six months for the enrollment period caused a decline of 78,000 [children]," Ms. Goodman said.
Other changes include letting families again deduct from gross income their child-care expenses and eliminating the 90-day waiting period for new applicants, except for those few who had private coverage in the previous three months.
The bill also loosens a limit on cash, bank balances and car values that took effect in September 2004, clipping about 34,000 children from the rolls, Ms. Goodman said.
The new asset test allows a family to have $10,000 in cash or a bank account, instead of $5,000; and drive one vehicle worth up to $18,000, with all others having to be worth $7,500 or less. The previous vehicle value limits were $15,000 and $4,650.
Although the state runs back-to-school ads encouraging families to enroll in CHIP, it hasn't tailored the message to alert those who may be newly eligible because of the rule changes, Ms. Goodman said.
Barbara Best, who runs the state chapter of Children's Defense Fund, which helped lead an "Insure Texas Kids Campaign," said she hopes that the less frequent processing of renewal applications will reduce errors and delays that have plagued four privately run call centers screening aid applicants' eligibility.
"Our biggest concern is that families don't know to appeal," Ms. Best said.
She said parents who feel their children have been wrongly denied
coverage should contact their state legislators or the Children's Defense
Fund at (713) 664-4080.