Health insurance program for thousands of Arizona kids at risk

PHOENIX — A health insurance program benefiting thousands of Arizona children is at risk.

More than 22,000 children in the state have health insurance through KidsCare, which is the state’s version of the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The program, managed under Medicaid, may soon run out of money after Congress failed to meet the deadline to authorize the renewal of funding over the weekend.

Siman Qaasim, director of health policy for the Children’s Action Alliance, said if Congress doesn’t renew funding soon, states will face “really tough decisions around what to do with the tens of thousands of children who are covered through CHIP.”

“For Arizona, we’re in a very unique situation,” she said. “We’d be especially punished because our state statute for our CHIP program, KidsCare, has a trigger that would shut down the program and freeze enrollment if Congress doesn’t renew funding.”

Nationwide, 9 million children have health insurance through the CHIP program. The program is designed for children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford paying the premiums and out-of-pocket costs of private or marketplace insurance.

To qualify, families must make between 138 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That’s an annual income of about $27,000 to nearly $41,000 for a family of three in Arizona.

Cate Arnquist’s 8-year-old son is one of the thousands of children in Arizona benefiting from KidsCare. He got approved last month. Arnquist, who lives in Tucson, said knowing her son has health insurance makes her feel relieved.

“My son is pretty healthy. But still, accidents happen,” she said. “It’s important for me to know that if I need to take him to see a doctor, that I will be able to do that.”

There are enough funds to keep KidsCare operating in Arizona for a few months, Qaasim said.

“But that does not present certainty for families and certainly not for our state’s Medicaid department,” she added. “They’ll really be faced with tough decisions and a lot of uncertainty.”

Qaasim said if Congress doesn’t act quickly, there could be an enrollment freeze similar to what happened in 2010, when Arizona state legislators froze KidsCare enrolment to cut state spending. At the time, the state was paying for a portion of the program. KidsCare was restored in 2016, and now the federal government funds it entirely.

Qaasim said Arizona has achieved “historic gains” in the rate of children with healthcare coverage over the last few years. She said the restoration of KidsCare has played a big part in that. She noted that from 2015 to 2016, the rate of uninsured children in Arizona dropped by 11 percent – the fourth largest drop in the nation.

“There is a lot to celebrate in Arizona in terms of children’s health coverage,” she said. “The worst thing that can happen now is for Congress to wipe out those important gains.”

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