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The Politics and Policy of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program

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The Federal Nation

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

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Abstract

While President Clinton’s failed attempt to enact national health insurance was probably the defining event of his presidency,1 there were, nevertheless, other health care initiatives among which the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was the most significant. In his memoirs, former president Clinton described SCHIP as “the largest expansion of health insurance since Medicaid was enacted in 1965.”2 When legislated, the federal government allocated $40 billion for SCHIP over ten years. Enacted in 1997 as part of the bipartisan Balanced Budget Agreement (BBA), SCHIP sought to reduce the rate of uninsurance among children in near-poor families whose incomes were too high for Medicaid. SCHIP built on the Medicaid mandates enacted between 1988 and 1990 that granted Medicaid to all pregnant women and young children below six years whose family income did not exceed 133 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL) and also to children from six to eighteen years who lived in poverty, that is, whose family income was less than the FPL.3 (In 2007, the FPL was $17,170 for a family of three and $20,650 for a family of four.) Even though the SCHIP legislation does not require states to provide health insurance for children whose family income is too high for Medicaid, all states have done so apparently in response to the financial incentive written into SCHIP.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Alex Waddan
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  2. Douglas Jaenicke
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, UK

    Iwan W. Morgan (Professor of U.S. Studies) (Professor of U.S. Studies)

  2. British Library, Montfort University, UK

    Philip J. Davies (Director of the Eccles Centre for American Studies, Professor of U.S. Studies) (Director of the Eccles Centre for American Studies, Professor of U.S. Studies)

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© 2008 Iwan W. Morgan and Philip J. Davies

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Waddan, A., Jaenicke, D. (2008). The Politics and Policy of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. In: Morgan, I.W., Davies, P.J. (eds) The Federal Nation. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617254_9

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