Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce the introduction of a piece of legislation that will provide an e-govemment solution to the complicated process of signing kids up for health insurance, the SCHIP Web-Based Enrollment Act of 2002. This bill provides a simple, targeted method for expanding access to children's health care by giving states the flexibility they need to implement web-based enrollment programs for SCHIP.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a program that allows states to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are above Medicaid eligibility levels. Like Medicaid, SCHIP is a federal-state matching program, but spending has fallen well below allotment levels for a variety of reasons. One of the most striking reasons is that states have had difficulty enrolling enough children to meet the allotment standards. Enrollment in SCHIP has involved lots of red- tape, and the complexity of the application has discouraged families from signing up.
To address this problem, states are beginning to utilize new technology and the Internet to streamline enrollment in SCHIP and Medicaid. This new technology has enabled states to reduce program enrollment time, improve accuracy, increase access for applicants, and centralize social service applications in state government. States that have launched or are planning to launch web-based enrollment in SCHIP include: California, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
While web-based enrollment is promising, many states are challenged by high start-up costs. This bill would provide states with more flexibility to use their federal SCHIP funds for this kind of activity, and would create a grant program to help States promote web-based enrollment.
The SCHIP Web-Based Enrollment Act of 2002 meets these objectives in the following ways: First, it would allow states to use unused, "retained'' (redistributed from the federal government back to the state) SCHIP money for this effort. Under current law, a state may use up to 10 percent of retained 1998 allotments for outreach activities approved by the Secretary. The bill adds an additional provision under that section that allows states to use ANY AMOUNT of their retained funds for web-based enrollment outreach.
Second, the bill establishes a separate grant program, allowing states to apply for additional funds (separate from SCHIP money) for this purpose. The grant program would make $50 million available over 5 years, and grants would be subject to a match rate. The match rate would be tied to their SCHIP match rate, but states would be eligible for up to 20 percent more than their rate, not to exceed 90 percent.
Finally, this legislation provides assistance to states from HHS for development and implementation of the web-based enrollment system by providing information and technical assistance.
There are nine million uninsured children in the United States. In fact, a child is born without health insurance every minute in this country. We must do everything we can to make it easier for families to enroll children in the health insurance programs available to them. I believe that this bill will provide the necessary means to help states expand enrollment in SCHIP. I urge my Colleagues to support this important legislation. Thank you.