Published: November 26, 2008 10:25 pm      

W.Va. looks to improve health coverage for children

Leaders hope to provide insurance for every state resident under age 18

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia has one of the country’s lowest percentages of children without health insurance, but state leaders are looking to do even better — provide coverage to every resident under age 18.

The main option policymakers want to use to bring coverage to the 29,000 children without it is the state Children’s Health Insurance Program. It provides coverage to roughly 24,000 children whose families make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

State leaders learned Tuesday that the federal government has signed off on a proposed expansion of the CHIP plan, allowing coverage for children in families making up to 250 times the federal poverty level, or about $53,000 for a family of four.

The expansion — which requires families earning that amount to pay a modest premium — will begin in January.

The news came on the same day that the nonprofit group Families USA released a report estimating that about 7 percent of West Virginia children have no health insurance, the 11th best ranking in the country.

“It shows our priorities are in the right place,” said Matt Turner, spokesman for Gov. Joe Manchin.

Manchin has made extending health care a primary goal of his second term, vowing to achieve coverage for every working resident of the state.

The Families USA report has also sparked hopes that West Virginia could soon provide health insurance to all its children, especially if state advocates are correct in their estimate that the report overstates the number of children who aren’t covered.

The number of children without health insurance in the state may be between 12,000 and 19,000 — or 3 percent and 5 percent — estimated Renate Pore, an analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

“It’s within our grasp to reach a point where no child is without health insurance,” said Perry Bryant, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care.

Expanding CHIP to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, though, likely won’t achieve that goal. In July, when the Children’s Health Insurance Board first made the proposal, it estimated the expansion would cover an additional 700 children.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller is pushing for a CHIP reauthorization bill in Congress that would allow states to expand the program further, which Rockefeller estimates would make an additional 4,000 children in West Virginia eligible.