Rubio, Bilirakis Lead Efforts to Protect Florida Children’s Health Insurance Program
Florida CHIP's Sunshine Health Stars Plus Plan helps working families whose income level disqualifies them for Medicaid and traditional CHIP, but are still seeking affordable health insurance for their children. Since 2015, the plan has seen its premiums rise nearly 60% and its enrollment drop from 30,000 to 11,000 children. Now, thousands of children in
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Secretary Price:
Nearly 11,000 children in
Healthy Kids was one of the first programs in the nation to offer affordable health insurance to school-age children who do not qualify for Medicaid. It was one of the models for the national CHIP program in 1997. In recognition of its success, the national CHIP statute grandfathered Healthy Kids as a pre-approved state-designed CHIP program.
Healthy Kids administers CHIP benefits for children ages 5 through 18 years from families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level. Families that qualify for CHIP pay
For many years, the full-pay program was classified as a CHIP look-alike, offering the same high-quality benefits and low out-of-pocket costs to all
This arrangement was put at risk by the ACA requirement to have "minimum essential coverage" (MEC). The ACA defines minimum essential coverage requirement to include CHIP programs (26
Healthy Kids expressed concern to CMS that separating the full-pay population from the subsidized CHIP program would increase the monthly premiums because the risk pool would be much smaller. Healthy Kids then attempted to obtain a Secretary-approved MEC status under the Other Coverage authority (21
It is a frustrating experience for a family to encounter an enormous premium increase as they move from a subsidized plan to a full-pay plan because their economic circumstances may have marginally improved. It is a plan with a similar benefit packet, but due to regulatory barriers the full-pay plan is offered at an unnecessarily higher cost. This is an unintended outcome from the ACA, and one that can be avoided.
We encourage you to exercise your authority under Section 5000A(f)(1)(E) and 45 CFR 156.604 to designate specific types of health insurance as MEC compliant. On behalf of the
On
We support the President's and your efforts to bring down health care costs, and roll back unnecessary regulatory barriers driving up the cost of health care for all Americans. We appreciate any steps you take allowing Healthy Kids to bring affordable coverage within reach of
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
Sincerely yours,
Read this original document at: https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=C1AD4507-D67D-4EC7-A748-F33C577E28A4
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