Obama Reverses Bush CHIP directive

On the heels of President Obama signing expanded SCHIP legislation into law, a memo reversing certain restrictions placed upon SCHIP by the Bush administration in an August 2008 letter was released Thursday, 2/5/09. Specifically the memo sought to eliminate the following restrictions, which was proving to be unenforceable and resulted in certain states filing legal challenges against it.

Children in families with incomes greater than 250% of the federal poverty level first must verify that 95% of eligible children in families below 200% of the poverty level are enrolled in the program. HHS also required states to verify that children in families with incomes above 250% of the poverty level have been uninsured for one year before qualifying for CHIP. The memo sought to clear up any potential confusion over SCHIP implementation and to allow the new SCHIP law to proceed without interference.

The entire memo can be viewed at this link : http://politics.theatlantic.com/02-04-09%20CHIP%20Presidential%20Memorandum.pdf