Importance of Child Health Insurance

Biggest concern for all the parents all over the world has always been the health of their child, yet paradoxically in-spite of all the Government’s efforts to give due insurance coverage to each child many children all over the world either are partially insured or uninsured.
The rising health care costs, an economic downturn, insecurity regarding the unpredictability of the health care system, are the main reasons behind people’s apartheid attitude towards health care system. Though, families with income below 200 % of the federal poverty level (FPL), access to “Employer Sponsored Insurance” but many parents have shown least inclination towards the scheme, the biggest reason is poverty.  Despite these problems, Medicaid and State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) –An exclusive Insurance Schemes started in America in 2001, is showing commendable success. It provided coverage to approximately 24 million children- 30% of all children and more than 40% of low-income children. States have an option to either simply expand eligibility criteria for health coverage under an existing Medicaid plan or create a separate SCHIP program, or use a combination of both approaches.

As Insurance for adults is important and so equally important is to insure the children, not only for their health but also for the well being of both the families. Both private and public health insurance coverage reduce the costs of health care, cushions the economic hardships faced by the families, gives greater access of health care services to children and over and above reduces the stress of parents. Depending on the scope and benefits health insurance can facilitate to cure acute and chronic illness, as well as give preventive care.
Then there are other policies for eg. New York’s insurance plan has two specifications like Child Health Plus A or Child Health Plus B. In this policy, families need not pay premium whose monthly income is less than $460 a week, for a three-person family, about $560 a week has to be paid, for a family of four and families with higher incomes, a premium of $ 9 or $ 15 monthly premium has to be paid depending on their income and family size.

• Physical examination
• Immunizations
• Diagnosis and treatment of illness and injury
• X-ray and lab tests
• Outpatient surgery
• Emergency care
• Prescription and non-prescription drugs if ordered
• Inpatient hospital medical or surgical care
• Short-term therapeutic outpatient services (chemotherapy, hemodialysis)
• Treatment for alcoholism and substance abuse, and mental health
• Dental care
• Vision care
• Speech and hearing
• Durable medical equipment
• Emergency ambulance transportation to a hospital
• Hospice

 The other most popular scheme is FAMIS, It stands for Family Access to Medical Insurance Security, which help families provide health insurance to their children.
Another program is Husky which was signed on October 29, 1997, by Governor John G. Rowland in historic legislation supported by every member of the General Assembly making a strong commitment to give healthy lives to all the young ones. It was designed to help uninsured children and also includes services under the traditional Medicaid program, now known as HUSKY Part A) providing brand-new health services for children in higher-income families called HUSKY part B.
Over and Above, The Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP and sometimes referred to as S-CHIP, is a federal-state program that provide health insurance to the children of working parents. In CHIP, premiums are based on a sliding scale according to how much money a family can afford to pay. It is designed for every eligible family.

Any child can stay on the program as long as he or she qualifies. Although there is no limit on the amount of time a child can remain insured under any one of the above schemes, you will need to renew their coverage periodically, generally every 6 to 12 months.

Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive national plan to make sure that every child has been covered under health care. In fact, the new federal budget proposal for 2007 has even gone to the extent of cutting current children’s health insurance programs (such as SCHIP) by $5 billion, which means instead of increasing the Insurance schemes, even more children will be uninsured and that premiums and co-payments will also go up for families who are served by these programs. In addition, most experts also opines that Health Savings Accounts proposed in the President’s State of the Union address only help those who can easily afford high private insurance premiums, while there is nothing for those who are left un-insured.
The most important requisite is a need to provide such health care reforms that with just for a minimum premium can guarantee all health benefits to children. There is also every time risk of economic down turns and budget crises. Thus to cope with the increased need for public health insurance programs, state and federal governments are developing a counter-cyclical financing system which ensure funds for public programs during recessions. Although many states have with them so-called rainy day funds to help cope with revenue shortfalls, but these funds are not sufficient enough to accommodate increase in demand for public health insurance coverage that accompanies economic slowdowns.

There is also a scheme to develop a possible model for public health insurance programs to follow like funding system for unemployment insurance. The state and federal governments have also established unemployment insurance trust fund, which accounts for each state that is funded by a payroll tax.  The federal government also contributes additional money into the trust fund during difficult times to extend unemployment benefits. A similar counter-cyclical funding system can help to ensure funding for SCHIP and Medicaid when demand for the programs increases during difficult economic times.

Another strategy is to temporarily increase the federal government’s contribution (the federal matching rate) for SCHIP and Medicaid to help states during economic downturns. In 2002, the Legislation to temporarily increase the federal matching rate for Medicaid and to provide additional fiscal relief for states via federal block grants was introduced in Congress in 2002, but it did not pass.

Therefore, there is an utmost need for a more reliable mechanism, such as a specific set of criteria to increases the matching rate and help states to avoid program cuts during recessions and thus makes the children of the State Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.