Back to school rituals include shopping for new shoes, clothes and school supplies. As parents and students across Iowa make final preparations for a new school year, don’t forget to obtain a clean bill of health from your doctor. Well child visits, including childhood immunizations, are a fundamental means to help nurture the general well-being, school readiness and lifelong healthy habits for tomorrow’s leaders.
Congress recognized the economic and social good that would come from expanding health care coverage for uninsured children. Early intervention and preventive health care services can detect and treat health problems better sooner rather than later and save money in the long run. In 1997, I helped advance a new federal-state program designed to extend health care coverage to uninsured kids who don’t qualify for Medicaid. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which handles oversight and legislative authority over Social Security and Medicaid, I supported the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) under Title XXI of the Social Security Act.
The six-year-old law created a new partnership between the federal and state governments and provided an enhanced federal match to states.
I worked to give states broad flexibility to tailor programs to meet the needs of residents. The S-CHIP program differs from Medicaid, the other federal-state program providing health care coverage for the poor, in that the states may set eligibility rules regarding age, income, resources, residency and duration of coverage. However, each state must meet federal guidelines, including a benchmark benefits package. And as an incentive to the states to work aggressively and enroll as many eligible children as expeditiously as possible, the law gave states a three-year window to use its annual federal allotment for the program. Unspent dollars are pooled and redistributed to states which have spent their full share. Funds unused at the end of three years revert to the federal government.
Shortly after the law was enacted, Iowa unveiled Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa, HAWK-I. A public-private partnership, Iowa’s S-CHIP program, including HAWK-I and expanded Medicaid program, has served 34,506 low-income children across the state. Thanks to the medical care they are now eligible to receive through Iowa’s S-CHIP program, these children of working families with limited means will get a head start to better health.
Although Iowa spent its full share in 1998 and 1999, it failed to use $8 million in fiscal 2000. As a result, the state would be required to return millions in unspent funds by Oct. 1. Considering the economic downturn and strapped state budgets, I led an effort in the Senate for almost a year to help Iowa and other states keep the unspent money intended to help uninsured children.
As the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I worked successfully to win passage of bipartisan legislation that allows Iowa to keep a share of its unspent S-CHIP funds. Congress approved the bill this summer and the president is expected to sign it into law. My bill would redistribute unspent S-CHIP dollars among states that used their full federal funding. It also would allow states a two-year window to cover children with dollars that otherwise would go back to the federal Treasury. Iowa stands to gain $4.2 million.
Iowa needs to continue to pursue initiatives that would increase enrollment. Every eligible child ought to be signed up and receiving the benefits of health care coverage.
For more information, Iowans may contact HAWK-I customer service at 800/257-8563. The call is free and confidential. Income limits and information about health care benefits also are available on-line. Iowans may download an application form at http://www.hawk-i.org.