Ohio Leaders Close the Gap in Children’s Health Insurance

More than 50,000 uninsured Ohio children can benefit

Today in Columbus, Ohio’s elected officials demonstrated unprecedented bipartisan support for the health of Ohio’s children. Thanks to the leadership of Governor Strickland, Senators Dale Miller (D-Cleveland) and Tom Niehaus (R-New Richmond), Representatives Mike Skindell (D-Lakewood) and Jimmy Stewart (R-Albany) and other officials, the 2008-2009 Ohio state budget will make health coverage available to all uninsured children in Ohio. Said Mary Wachtel, Voices director of public policy:

“Closing the gap in Ohio children’s health insurance is a wise, productive, and preventive investment that increases the likelihood that children will succeed in school and become productive citizens. Voices for Ohio’s Children has led the team of advocates urging officials to expand coverage to all uninsured children in the state.

The futures of children growing up without medical care are bleak, but thanks to our state’s bipartisan leadership, we’ve made tremendous progress toward ensuring that Ohio’s kids can grow up healthy and strong. Voices for Ohio’s Children looks forward to working with partners across Ohio to find and enroll as many kids as possible in available health insurance programs.”

The FY2008-2009 budget, to be signed by Governor Strickland by the end of this week, will include provisions that:Raise the Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women from 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL) to 200% FPL. About 3800 Ohio women and their babies will benefit from this expansion.

• Raise the Medicaid/SCHIP eligibility for Ohio children from 200% FPL to 300% FPL. Up to 32,000 uninsured children up to age 19 can gain health coverage as a result of this expansion.
• Allow Ohio children aging out of the foster care system to keep Medicaid coverage until age 21. Currently, when children leave the foster care system, they lose their Medicaid coverage. 2600 young adults will benefit from this proposal.
• Create a new program that allows uninsured children living in families with incomes over 300% FPL to buy public health coverage on a sliding fee scale, with those in upper income families paying the full cost. This proposal is especially important for children with special health needs or a pre-existing condition for whom private health coverage can be unavailable or extremely expensive. More than 20,000 of Ohio’s uninsured children live in families at this income level.

Medicaid eligibility for children was raised to 200% FPL in July 2000, and according to Wachtel, that commitment has paid off. The percent of uninsured children in Ohio decreased from 9.8% in 1998 to 5.4% in 2004.

“Ohio’s accomplishment in decreasing the number of uninsured children has been remarkable,” she said, “given the growth in Ohio’s poverty rate and annual average unemployment rate as well as rising health costs and declines in employer-based coverage. Of all our health reform efforts in recent years, expanding coverage to children through Medicaid and SCHIP has been the most successful and efficient. Now we can continue that work for Ohio’s uninsured children.”

Voices for Ohio’s Children is a non-partisan voice of Ohio’s nearly 3 million children. With more than 100 collaborative partners, we advance changes in public policy that improve the health, safety, education, family stability and childcare of all Ohio children and their families.

Editor’s note: The 2007 Federal Poverty Level for a family of four is $20,650:
150% FPL=$30,975
200% FPL=$41,300
300% FPL=$61,950