CHIPRA Big Help to Children’s Health

Earlier this month, President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA). CHIPRA is meant to provide additional funding in order to renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides low-cost insurance to children coming from families that do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private health insurance. According to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, thanks to the signing of CHIPRA, 10 states will be able to share in the $100 million grant to “help states implement and evaluate provider performance measures and utilize health information technologies such as pediatric electronic health records and other quality improvement initiatives.”

While rules and benefits vary for each state, basically those that qualify are all children up to age 19 whose families have incomes lower than $45,000 (even higher in some states). What many people do not realize though is that CHIP also cover pregnant women. This means that pregnant women can have the cost of lab tests, labor and delivery covered thru CHIP.