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U.S. health dept. okays health insurance for CNMI children
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Posted on Sep 02 1999
The Department of Public Health will now be able to expand its Medicaid program with the recent approval of the Northern Marianas children’s health insurance coverage plan by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Public Health Secretary Kevin Joseph Villagomez said he will discuss with the Medicaid staff the specific areas on how the federal grant will be spent.
U.S. HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala has recently approved the CNMI’s plan to provide health coverage for uninsured children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The CNMI could receive $118,000 in federal funds under the federal CHIP program, a historic, bipartisan legislation singed in 1997 by President Clinton.
The CHIP law allocates $24 billion over five years to help states expand health insurance to children whose families earn too much for traditional Medicaid, yet not enough to afford private health insurance. Just like all states and territories, the CNMI will receive reimbursement only for actual expenditures of insuring children.
With the growing number of locally born children whose parents are not U.S. citizens, Villagomez noted that DPH is forced to stretch further its limited resources.
About 20 percent of the annual $3 million budget of DPH for Medicaid is spent on children born in the CNMI but whose parents are not U.S. citizens. Villagomez said the federal funding will at least take away the amount chalked up by the general Medicaid Program and realign it for other health projects.
The Commonwealth will use the CHIP allocation to expand Medicaid for children below 19 years of age who are currently receiving services through a territory-funded program.
