Rep. Lujan Introduces Bill to Help States Enroll More Kids in Health Insurance

WASHINGTON, June 22 -- Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., issued the following news release:

Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) today introduced legislation that will help states enroll more children in healthcare coverage by expanding the outreach and enrollment grant program. Lujan's bill also allows for the inclusion of parent mentors in the grants program. Outreach and enrollment grants help to identify and enroll children who are eligible for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Lujan noted that Medicaid and CHIP provide no-cost or low-cost health coverage for eligible children in New Mexico. These programs provide health coverage for children so that they can get routine check-ups, immunizations and dental care to keep them healthy. In New Mexico, 87% of children live in or near poverty. 51% of children are covered by Medicaid or CHIP, and children make up 64.5% of New Mexico's Medicaid population. Specifically, 414,277 kids rely on Medicaid; 15,100 rely on CHIP; last year,, New Mexico had fewer than 22,500 uninsured children.

"Children's health insurance coverage has reached historic levels in New Mexico, and across the U.S, thanks in great part to Medicaid, CHIP, and the ACA. Last year, 96% of all kids in New Mexico had health coverage, which is one of the only health data points where our state is above the national average of 95%," said Lujan. "That's a significant increase from just eight years ago when only 87%of New Mexican kids had coverage and the national average was 91%."

Lujan said his bill was introduced, in part, to ensure that the recent increases in providing insurance coverage for children continues, and that resources to identify and enroll these children in health coverage are made available to the states. In addition, the bill would create provide resources to allow parent mentors to participate in the program. Under the terms of the bill, parent mentors are defined as experienced, minority mothers and fathers (with at least one Medicaid- or CHIP-covered child) who have received training, then assisted minority families in their own communities for one year with insurance applications, retaining coverage, medical homes, and social determinants of health, such as food insufficiency and housing issues.

"If we cut Medicaid and other parts of the social safety net, as the President and others have proposed, kids are going to lose, and all the gains we have made in providing insurance for the youngest members of society will be swept away," said Lujan. "We must not let that happen."

Specifically, this legislation would:

* Authorize $100million in federal funding for CHIP outreach and enrollment grants for the purpose of providing more children with health coverage

* Allow trained parent mentors to be eligible for such grants