State Expects Flat CHIP Growth

AUSTIN (AP) – State health officials did not request much new money in the upcoming state budget for the program that insures children from working-poor families because they predict it will barely grow, even as the economy sours and the state population swells.

Advocates for low-income families, though, are skeptical that there will be little or no enrollment growth in the Childrens Health Insurance Program.

“I’m surprised they think it’s going to slow down that much,” said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the progressive think tank Center for Public Policy Priorities.

CHIP enrollment has swelled to nearly 477,000 this month, from 300,000 a year ago, after lawmakers approved an expansion last year. But the state Health and Human Services Commission says it believes growth will slow to a crawl.

Dunkelberg, a former state Medicaid official, said she did not expect enrollment to plateau.

“You would expect continued, slow growth,” she said.

Commission researchers expect it to average between 480,000 and 486,000 in each of the next three years, said commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman.

They project enrollment, from this month’s level, to grow by less than 1 percent next year; and 0.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

“We’ll see a settling out,” Goodman said.

Goodman defended the Texas forecast, saying the state’s economy is better than those in many other states, with unemployment relatively low.

CHIP spent $921 million in the last two-year budget cycle and is on target to cost $2.1 billion in the current cycle, which ends next August. Part of the increase was caused by the addition of some pregnant women and their infants in early 2007.

Goodman said costs would rise to $2.5 billion in the next two-year cycle. Of that, state funds would make up about $700 million – up from $600 million in the current cycle, she said.

Dunkelberg said the commission has estimated “there are 200,000 to 300,000 uninsured kids out there – uninsured but in the CHIP income range,” though not enrolled. A family of four earning less than $42,400 is eligible.

“We’re going to be looking for some assurances that if (enrollment) doesn’t slow down that much, the program will still be funded and kids will still be able to enroll,” she said.

Information from The Dallas Morning News: www.dallasnews.com

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)