More state youngsters covered by health insurance

By Ed Anderson

Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE -- More than 52,000 more children have been insured in the past 18 months under a Medicaid-financed health insurance program for low-income families who cannot afford traditional health coverage, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Thursday.



The 52,229 youngsters added to the rolls brings to 667,975 the number of those younger than 19 now covered either by Medicaid or the Louisiana Children's Health Insurance Program, said Bob Johannessen, chief spokesman for the Department of Health and Hospitals, the agency that administers the program.



Blanco said when she became governor about 77,000 eligible youths were not insured. She set her sights on cutting that number in half. That goal has been exceeded, she said.



"If there is health insurance, a child is less likely to end up in an emergency room with an illness out of control," Blanco said.



LaCHIP covers children who might otherwise fall through the cracks of the Medicaid system because their families make too much money.



Doreen Brasseaux, a senior adviser on health care reform in the state health and hospitals agency, said Medicaid covers children younger than 6 whose family income is less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, and children 7 to 18 whose family income is less than 100 percent of the poverty level.



LaCHIP covers children younger than 6 whose family makes between 133 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level, and children from 7 to 18 whose families are at 100 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.



For a family of four, the federal poverty level is $19,350, Brasseaux said.



Johannessen said when a new survey comes out next month, state officials expect the overall number of uninsured youth in the state will drop below 10 percent, or a little more than 100,000 youngsters.



He said that is based on changes in employment and income eligibility.



When the first survey was done in 1998, about 22 percent of youths younger than 19 were uninsured, and that number dropped to 11.1 percent in 2003. Brasseaux said that number is expected to be "significantly lower" than 11.1 percent when the new survey by the Louisiana State University Public Policy Research Lab is finished in a few weeks.



Blanco said notices to parents about the program have been sent home with about 1 million students in all schools. The notices explain how to apply and qualify. She said a new law will allow state officials to "reach out to families" who have children signed up for low-cost or free lunches in schools to see whether they have insurance.



Dr. Fred Cerise, secretary of the health agency, said his department also has tracked some eligible families through the federal food stamp program and programs in the juvenile justice system.