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Posted: 8:40 PM- Every Utah child who qualifies for health insurance through CHIP would be guaranteed coverage under a bill sponsored by the two top Republican state lawmakers.
House Speaker Greg Curtis's House Bill 326 would mean there would no longer be periods when eligible children are blocked from CHIP because the program is out of money.
Instead, the Children's Health Insurance Program would become an entitlement program similar to Medicaid.
Capping enrollment over budget woes "didn't make sense to me. You don't control when you're seeking medical care for a child," Curtis said Friday, adding that Senate President John Valentine will carry the bill in that chamber.
Utah is one of only six states that have capped enrollment, according to Voices For Children, which lauded Curtis. Since 2001, there have been about a half-dozen blackout periods, with the number of days totaling nearly a year.
"It's a tremendous commitment to the children of this state to run a bill like this," said Voices director Karen Crompton. "It makes a huge statement based on who the bill's sponsor is. The speaker of the House does not run many bills."
Specifically, the bill forbids the Utah Department of Health from capping CHIP enrollment. Lawmakers would be committing to find extra money to cover enrollment growth every year.
A fiscal note is still being prepared, but early estimates but the number at $2 million to $3 million a year.
A Dan Jones poll Crompton's group commissioned last year, when CHIP was closed, found 65 percent of Utahns disapproved of limiting enrollment.
The health department reopened CHIP to new children in July after receiving a $4 million infusion of cash from the 2007 Legislature. The money paid for 12,000 more slots, to cover a total of 45,000 kids.
But as of the beginning of the month, there were 13,400 slots still open. Advocates say the state needs to do a better job of promoting the program.
Curtis's bill fits into the overall goal of health care system reform pushed by Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. and some lawmakers. Part of the reform plan calls for increasing enrollment in existing government programs: almost half of Utah's 300,000 uninsured qualify for Medicaid, CHIP or other programs.
CHIP, paid for with state and federal funds, is for children whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance. To qualify, a family of four cannot make more than $41,300 a year. Depending on their income, families pay nothing or $60 a quarter in premiums.
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