Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Student's Name
Instructor's Name
University
Course
Date
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
A policy could be defined as a principle of action developed and implemented by an entity to promote project implementation development. In the U.S government, various policies offer guidelines for different departments and entities in the government. The children's department is a significant entity that requires ultimate concern and care. In the U.S. government, various policies are in place to offer sufficient care and protection for children. One of this study's policies is the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This policy contains requirements for health coverage for eligible children. The program is funded by the federal government and states governments; thus, offering coverage through separate CHIP programs by the states and Medicaid. The policy was signed into law in 1997 as an option to cater for health coverage for children who do not qualify for Medicaid. Such children included those in families with high income not qualifying for Medicaid but cannot afford private coverage. According to Alker, Kenney, and Rosenbaum (2020), CHIP has enabled most states to provide children's health coverage up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
Children are held dear by every nation since they represent societal continuity and the hope for future improvements. Therefore, ensuring that a nation raises healthy children guarantees stability in the future. The introduction of the CHIP policy resulted from declining employer-sponsored health insurance for children. The government had to ensure that it raised healthy children since promoting children's health programs helps avert various problems such as increasing numbers of low-income earners. According to Alker, Kenney, and Rosenbaum (2020), the program brought various advantages in sharing responsibilities between the state and federal government and extending children's healthcare. Typically, the program led to an extended health coverage program for all children since they could receive health insurance. The federal government took the more significant responsibility in terms of cost. This policy decided that the federal government caters for 65%-81% of the costs compared to the 50%-73% range for Medicaid. This change of terms helped reduce the burden on state governments and ensure efficiency in delivering the program. Consequently, the state governments experience high flexibility in the utilization and allocation of the funds based on the needs of the society. State governments' flexibility lies in establishing different CHIP programs and utilizing funds to expand children's Medicaid.
CHIP is guided and supported by the HEALTHY KIDS Act, signed into law in 2010 to promote physical and nutritional health among schooling children in the U.S. This law provides the type of nutrition required for children from kindergarten to 12th grade and the types and duration of physical exercise. Focusing on such vital issues has helped promote children's health and improve their academic performances. A healthy nation is a wealthy nation; therefore, healthy children mean that the nation has the potential to be wealthy in the future. More focus on improving children's healthcare in all states across the U.S enhances children's health helping the government have a humble time to focus on other issues without letting the federal poverty level increase due to parents' struggles in covering their children's health. KFF (2014) implies that investing in early health is very important for a nation since it improves the learning experience and lifelong outcomes in behavior and mental and physical well-being. Therefore, it is a solid investment that determines other activities and government securities progress.
Previously, there have been amendments to the policy to ensure its versatility and efficiency in the intended line of service delivery. Generally, some of these amendments come along with court cases that determine the way to go or as a way to solve the existing conflicts among shareholders. The amendment of the policy resulted from the funding lapse that occurred in September 2018 due to the variability of the carryover funds from FFY 2017 by a majority of the states (CHIP, n.d.). The lapse occurred due to disorganized management of the funds meant to support the CHIP program and reduced funding of the state governments by the federal government, which led to a reduction of the CHIP funds. It took the intervention of Congress to determine the most appropriate manner of funding for the program, where it was determined that extending the funding would be the best solution. Since the most significant issue was reducing tax cuts to 28%, it was determined that most citizens and stakeholders in the program preferred an extension of CHIP funding to 62%. After consultations and considerable discussions, the Congress, through the Congress Budget Office, determined that increased program funding would be helpful since there would be sufficient savings over time since covering children in CHIP was cheap compared to marketplaces, based on premium prices.
Benefits of Children's Health Insurance Program Policy
Development and implementation of the program helped increase funding for children's health coverage in the U.S. According to Adams et al. (2019), CHIP has helped cover more than 8 million children from low-income families and improved the funding to cover 2 in every 3 children. For this reason, health status among children has improved, and there is anticipated improvement in the future following the rapid developments. When CHIP was introduced, it was meant to supplement Medicaid to ensure overall coverage for all children from middle- and low-income families. Later on, the two programs became complementary and have helped reduce the number of uninsured children in the country. There was a huge transition which marked a more than 50% change where the rate of uninsured children fell to 7% in 2012, has changed from 14% in 1997. This remarkable outcome has been due to the need for equality and a stable society with the ability to plan for the future and execute the existing plans. The Hispanic children, who are most likely to be uninsured due to marginalization issues, were also part of the beneficiaries of the programs since the rate of uninsured Hispanic children shifted from 25% to 15% (Alker, Kenney & Rosenbaum, 2020).
With the implementation and amendment of CHIP, families and children are safe in times of financial crises such as economic recessions. Children can constantly receive medical cover even during economic recessions, thus improving financial stability during crises. Families do not have to struggle with the more significant burden of catering for children's medical expenses when they cannot even afford food. Following the changes in the numbers of children covered every year, there has been a need to focus on retention levels for all low-income children in the program. In 2011, CHIP made efforts to ensure that the number of retained low-income children remains at a 75% ratio, which means that more than three-quarters of the children are covered. The numbers vary in different states based on the ethnicity variance and even economic independence rates. The CHIP policy, together with Medicaid, has helped minimize ethnic disparities and discrimination through increased coverage of children of color, the majority of whom are from low-income families. The program has also been significant in covering children with special health care needs who rely on medical attention for a more substantial part of their lives. Hence, the policy's inception marked a turnaround for families with such children since they could concentrate on other issues since they were relieved of the burdens of catering to ongoing medical expenses for their children.
Court Cases and Legal Amendments of CHIP
Following the constant funding issues in the program, there was the development of an amendment act that serves as a directive to provide guidelines for the stable funding of state children's health. The Act was known as the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. The Act was developed following an appeal to the social security act to improve the efficiency of CHIP funding. The Act provided a mandatory extension of CHIP funding to cater to all state children's needs. There was also a need to develop an enrolment bonus to help offset the hefty fees resulting from enrollment and retention efforts. Such amendments helped relieve parents of the burden of having to top payments for ethnic children despite the program's existence. There was a mandat...