Please visit our Facebook page for exciting information about recent statewide marketing activities. 1. Hawaii: Updated Hospital Data Hawaii's recent hospital emergency department data compiled by Hawaii Health Information Corporation show that as the total number of kids visits continues to increase, those attributed to uninsured children and youths have declined from 5.25% (2000) to 4.10% (2008). Data also show a lower annual number of uninsured newborns from 481 (2000) to 348 (2008) which reflects a decrease from 2.8% to 1.8% of hospital births. 2. National: Amendment to Fund CHIP through 2019 Gains Steam More than 500 children's advocacy groups are backing a Senate health reform bill amendment by Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) that would fund the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through 2019. The amendment would also provide financial incentives for states implementing best practices for enrollment and lock eligibility at 2009 levels. Meanwhile, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) may have won an extension of CHIP through 2015, according to Senate staff familiar with the compromise that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) brokered with a group of ten senators. The Watson Wyatt Worldwide study found that depending on income CHIP-eligible children up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level were exposed to a very small portion of medical expenses, from zero to two percent of the treatment cost. By contrast, comparable exchange plans in the House and Senate bills would expose children to anywhere from five to thirty-five percent of costs and greatly increasing their financial burden and leaving low-income children worse off as a result of health reform. The Casey amendment is in the Congressional Budget Office scoring process and would also require the Department of Health & Human Services to report to Congress by 2016 on the differences between exchange-subsidized coverage and CHIP coverage. This would allow three years for debate to decide whether the program should continue outside of the exchange or not. [Brett Coughlin, Inside Washington Publishers, 12/10/09] 3. National: Recession Doesn't Stop States From Expanding Kids Health Insurance Despite the economic downturn that's busting state budgets from Sacramento to Tallahassee, twenty-six states this year made it easier for low-income children to get health insurance, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. But the gains could be fleeting as most were made possible by new federal stimulus dollars, which run out at the end of 2010, along with a requirement that states maintain Medicaid eligibility levels. The report surveyed how states were handling Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). States also benefited from the federal reauthorization of CHIP in February which gave them new options to expand eligibility and millions of dollars to find uninsured kids. Diane Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, said the report shows "there is substantial momentum to covering children," even exceeding previous years when the economy was healthier. "I was surprised what is happening given the recession's depths." Nineteen states last year made it easier to enroll kids in CHIP and Medicaid by increasing eligibility, simplifying enrollment procedures, or eliminating premiums. At the same time, fifteen states scaled back children's CHIP coverage, including California and Tennessee. Both froze enrollment, although California later reopened the program. As a requirement to get stimulus funding, states were prohibited from cutting Medicaid eligibility. CHIP's future is unclear because health overhaul legislation passed by the House repeals the program in 2014 and rolls children and pregnant women into the new health insurance exchanges and the Senate bill continues CHIP, though at funding levels which child health advocates called inadequate. States' current efforts at expanding coverage are being closely watched because they will determine the "base at which the broader health reforms can be built," said Donna Cohen Ross, outreach director at the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which helped prepare the report. Some findings in the report: * Eighteen states expanded health insurance eligibility, including increasing income eligibility or reducing waiting periods for children to be uninsured before qualifying for CHIP. * Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have agreed to cover immigrant children or pregnant women who have been legally in the country less than five years. * Fifteen states simplified enrollment or renewal procedures by allowing them to retain eligibility for one year, removing asset tests and reducing income verification requirements. * Two states, New Jersey and Rhode Island, eliminated premiums for some families with children in CHIP. But fourteen states increased premiums in CHIP, including Arizona which doubled its monthly premiums, and four states--California, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Virginia--severely cut or eliminated funding for marketing or other efforts to identify and enroll uninsured children. "This report affirms that even states really struggling with budget crises, their commitment to kids remains very strong," said Alice Weiss, program director at the National Academy for State Health Policy. But Weiss warned that states could grow more cautious in expanding health insurance because of the uncertainty over CHIP's future. "There is a question of whether states will want to invest in CHIP for the remainder of the program's life," she said. [Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News, 12/08/09]