Gov. Gregoire urges Congress to swiftly reauthorize children�s health insurance initiative

For Immediate Release: January 13, 2009

OLYMPIA � In a letter to the state�s Congressional delegation, Governor Chris Gregoire today urged them to support reauthorization of the State Children�s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), erasing two vetoes by President Bush that limited states� ability to decide how SCHIP funding will be used.

Gregoire also hailed the decision by leaders of the new Democratic Congress to make the SCHIP program the first order of business in its new session. The move may mean that signing a SCHIP reauthorization bill could be one of Barack Obama�s first official acts as President.

�It is still a priority of mine that all Washington children have access to high quality health care coverage,� Gregoire said. �During these difficult economic times, this legislation is critical to achieving that. This legislation would allow the states, not the federal government, to decide the best way to spend this money and the best route to expand our health care programs.�

The new legislation will let the state decide when and how much to expand SCHIP eligibility limits. Gregoire suspended an earlier plan to move eligibility limits to 300 percent of the poverty level on January 1, because of the state�s $5.8 billion revenue shortfall.

The proposal also includes a provision, advocated for strongly by members of our federal delegation, which would allow Washington and 10 other states to use a portion of their SCHIP allotment to pay for children�s health care between 133 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is currently paid for through Washington�s Medicaid program. As the law is now written, SCHIP funds can only be used to help families between 201 and 250 percent of poverty level.

Gregoire also urged the state�s Congressional delegation to support another provision that would allow the state to expand its Employer Supported Insurance (ESI) program to the SCHIP program. Under ESI, the state is able to provide children�s coverage to families by subsidizing employer coverage in cases where the state�s help actually is cheaper for taxpayers than having the children enroll in Medicaid.

Gregoire said she hoped the legislation would also recognize the unnecessary expense and delay required under the federal law that requires Medicaid programs to document citizenship before health care can be provided to families that eventually turn out to be eligible.

�Health care delayed is the same as health care denied,� Gregoire said. �In two years, this new federal requirement has turned up only a single Washington Medicaid client who was not a citizen. But tens of thousands of legitimate Medicaid applicants have had to spend months in waiting lines while we tracked down out-of-state birth certificates and identification papers.�