  
Universal healthcare coverage for US children proposed
Last Updated: 2001-05-03 18:33:42 EDT (Reuters Health)
By Todd Zwillich
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - Democrats in the House and the Senate have introduced new legislation aimed at providing health coverage to all American children.
The bill seeks to create a new federal program similar to Medicare The new program, dubbed MediKids, would cover healthcare costs including prescription drugs for all children from birth up to age 23 years whose parents do not have private insurance. Parents would be responsible for a monthly premium for the periods when their children receive public coverage.
Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), the bill's chief sponsor in the House, said that a new program was needed because existing plans like Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) do not cover many children and often do not reach others that are eligible.
The bill comes at a time when lawmakers are debating how best to pare down the number of Americans without healthcare insurance. Those people currently number about 42 million, and Congress recently expanded access to existing Medicaid and SCHIP in an effort reduce their ranks. Still, about 10 million US children currently do not have coverage.
"Congress cannot point to these programs and declare that our work is done," Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said in a statement.
A quarter of the program would be financed through premiums, with the rest coming from general government revenue. Rep. Stark estimated that families taking advantage of MediKids would have an additional $200 per year in premiums withheld from their paychecks. Low income families living at up to 300% of the federal poverty level would receive a discount on their premiums.
The federal government would pick up the rest of the cost of the plan, estimated at $600 to $800 billion per year.
The legislation calls for a gradual phase-in of coverage for children starting with all kids below age 6 years old in 2003. MediKids would cover all uninsured children under 16 years by 2005 and all individuals under 23 years by 2007. After that, Stark said, Congress would have to consider ending SCHIP and Medicaid coverage.
Several organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the NETWORK Catholic social justice lobbying group, and the Consumers Union, endorsed the legislation.
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