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February 14, 2007
Los Angeles, CA - President Bush's recent budget proposals, if ultimately approved by Congress, would drop an estimated 248,000 California children currently enrolled in the Healthy Families insurance program, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. In addition, 37,000 children who are currently eligible for health insurance coverage under the current rules, but are not enrolled, would no longer be able to apply for the program.
President Bush has proposed capping the eligibility for the federal government's State Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. States voluntarily create SCHIP plans by paying matching funds, and have frequently been allowed to set their own income eligibility limits. In California, where the SCHIP plan is called Healthy Families, the family income eligibility is 250 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
"At a time when California and other states are looking for ways to increase eligibility levels for their SCHIP programs to provide coverage for uninsured children, this proposal would decrease coverage and increase the number of uninsured children in the state," said E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and professor in the UCLA School of Public Health.
In all, approximately 285,000 California children will lose access to Healthy Families if the proposed changes go through. This estimate is based on an analysis of data from the 2005 California Health Interview Survey.
| SCHIP Enrollees and Uninsured Children Eligible for SCHIP, under both current rules and under proposed income eligibility cuts, Ages 0-18 |
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The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research was established in 1994 and is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers. It is also the premier source of key health policy information for California. The Center is based in the UCLA School of Public Health and is affiliated with the UCLA School of Public Affairs.
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