Democrats Ask HHS Secretary To Lift CMS Limits On SCHIP, Medicaid

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 18 Jan 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Five chairs of congressional committees with health care jurisdiction on Tuesday in a letter to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt called on the agency to immediately rescind the income eligibility caps on Medicaid and SCHIP, BNA reports (BNA, 1/16).

According to the lawmakers, CMS has no authority to enforce an August 2007 directive prohibiting states from extending SCHIP coverage to children from families earning above 250% of the federal poverty level unless states can first show that 95% of eligible children below 200% of the federal poverty level are enrolled in the program. The letter added that CMS should not enforce an apparent extension of the SCHIP policy to Medicaid. In December, CMS told Ohio officials that the state would not be allowed to cover low-income children in families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level.

The lawmakers -- including Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) and House Government Reform Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) -- in the letter said that nothing in the SCHIP statute "affects underlying Medicaid eligibility or states' ability to expand coverage to children using Medicaid funds." The letter adds that CMS has "continued to pursue a policy that is contrary to federal law and that limits children's access to health care." The lawmakers said that federal law does not "authorize CMS to effectively impose an income eligibility cap in (SCHIP) or Medicaid, nor does it require states wanting to cover children at levels higher than 250% of the poverty level to have to use 100% state-only funds to do so" (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 1/15). The letter, signed by Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), asks for HHS to reply by Jan. 31, BNA reports.

Reaction

An HHS spokesperson said assistance programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP "should be targeted to Americans most in need," adding that as Leavitt "has said, finding them is harder than finding those who are better off financially, but it's exactly what states should be doing." Dingell in a release said that "state efforts to protect the health of more low-income citizens should be encouraged and supported," adding that "the Bush administration is working to limit access to our nation's most successful and effective health care programs" (BNA, 1/16).

The letter is available online.

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