Thursday, April 10, 2008

Government Insurance Expansion in Iowa

Children insurance mandate not approved, slacker mandate is

By Marc Kilmer

Categories: Insurance Regulation, Iowa, Medicaid, SCHIP

The goal of universal children's health coverage in Iowa moved one step closer to reality this week as the Iowa Senate approved legislation expanding its children's insurance program:

The main focus would be to cover more children under Hawk-I, a joint federal and state program for moderate-income families. The Senate bill would increase the income limit for a family of four from about $41,000 to about $62,000. It would spend about $5 million next year, and about $25 million annually by 2011.

The bill also included language forcing insurance companies to cover adult "children" on their parents' insurance but did not include a mandate that all children must be covered by some form of health insurance.

With the move to expand SCHIP stalled at the federal level, it seems activitists are focusing on expanding state programs to the maximum level allowable by HHS. Of course, HHS caps such expansions at 250% of the federal poverty level for the moment, but that could easily change with a new administration.