Most Children In Pennsylvania Have Health Insurance Coverage
Monday May 05, 2008Most Children In Pennsylvania Have Health Insurance Coverage in Individual Health Insurance
About a year ago, the children’s health
insurance program (CHIP) in Pennsylvania
got the go-ahead from the federal government to expand coverage. Since then,
the program has provided insurance for over 15,000 more children.
The result? Today, 96 percent of kids living in Pennsylvania have health insurance.
Pennsylvania’s CHIP program was created in 1993 — one of the oldest programs for children’s health insurance. In fact, children started getting coverage in the Keystone State three years before federal CHIP legislation, reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Immediately, there was a waiting list before children could get state-subsidized coverage. But now, there’s no such list at all — mostly from the approved expansion of the program.
Children in a family of four with an annual income of up to about $66,600 — around 300 percent higher than the federal poverty level — qualifies for Pennsylvania CHIP coverage.
“All of a sudden, we were able to wipe out the waiting list,” said Pennsylvania Deputy Insurance Commissioner George Hoover.
The Pennsylvania health insurance program has been so successful that state officials and lawmakers point out that it was likely model for the federal CHIP law.
“It’s a program that, because of Pennsylvania’s experience, has been road-tested. It works. It delivers results. It’s cut the number of uninsured people dramatically,” said U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr.
