Dover – A bipartisan group of legislators and Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn on Wednesday unveiled legislation to get data from schools on children who take part in free and reduced price lunch programs and use it to find kids who are eligible for health coverage from the state but not enrolled.

 

The legislation, sponsored by state Sens. Patricia Blevins and Liane Sorenson and state Reps. Pam Maier and Teresa Schooley, would allow Delaware to take advantage of federal rules providing for transfer of information from school districts to the Department of Health and Social Services.

 

Approximately 5,000 children in Delaware are enrolled in the state’s version of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which provides comprehensive health coverage for $25 or less a month to families often described as “working poor” – above the federal poverty line and not eligible for Medicaid but without enough income to purchase health coverage.

 

However, another 8,000 kids in Delaware are estimated to be eligible for CHIP but are not enrolled. As a result, Delaware returns about $3 million of its annual federal allotment for the program.

 

“This bill puts in place a process that will result in many Delaware families who might not otherwise know that they were eligible for CHIP finding out that they are eligible,” said Commissioner Denn, who has been working on CHIP outreach strategies since last year. “The school districts will gather up the information from those parents willing to disclose it, forward it to DHSS, and DHSS will reach out to the parents.”

 

“Currently, Delaware actually sends money back to the federal government that could be used on insuring our kids. Instead, we need to find those kids and put that money to good use,” Sen. Blevins said.

 

“Information-sharing between schools and the CHIP program is a logical way to find children who are eligible for CHIP but not enrolled,” said Sen. Sorenson.

 

“This legislation is about creating connections between different parts of government and getting them to work together for a worthwhile goal – making sure our children are healthy,” Rep. Maier said.

 

“The number of children without insurance has been increasing for the last four years. We need to reverse that trend by doing everything we can to find children who are eligible for the programs that we already have,” Rep. Schooley said.

 

In July 2007, Commissioner Denn announced that the Department of Insurance would assist in CHIP outreach activities, which are generally done by DHSS. That effort has included distributing CHIP information and applications to children in the summer feeding program, through Delaware Technical and Community College’s financial aid offices, through the federal bankruptcy court, and through a variety of community social service organizations that have volunteered to help.

 

Also on Wednesday, Commissioner Denn announced a plan to provide a cash incentive to schools whose nurses sign children up for the CHIP program, replicating a successful program from CHIP’s early years. For each student enrolled in CHIP by the nurse, a school will receive $50 for school supplies, funded by the Department of Insurance.

 

“We will continue to try to identify and enroll eligible families every way we can, with all the community partners we can,” Commissioner Denn said.

###