Both the US House of Representatives and the
US Senate plan to vote on legislation
reauthorizing the State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) this week. SCHIP
funds HUSKY B in Connecticut, including its
dental component.
The
Children's Health And
Medicare Protection
("CHAMP") Act, pending in the House, will
accomplish many important improvements in
access to health care, it will help
low-income individuals
from kids to the elderly. Among many other
provisions, the CHAMP Act will:
- Dramatically reduce the
number of
uninsured children throughout the country;
- Reinstate health insurance
for legal
permanent resident children and pregnant
women barred from this program in 1996;
- Prevent a scheduled
reduction in
payments to Medicare providers;
- Establish parity for
beneficiary
cost-sharing under Medicare for outpatient
mental illness treatment (lowering the
current 50% requirement down to 20%, which is
the current cost-sharing requirement for
outpatient treatment for physical health
conditions);
- Make improvements to the
Medicare Part
D drug benefit:
- Codifying current
requirements
for Part D
formularies to have broad coverage of
medications to treat mental
illness;
- Limiting the asset test
to allow
more
beneficiaries to qualify for the
Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) and avoid the
"doughnut hole" coverage gap;
- Eliminating the late
enrollment
penalty
for LIS eligible individuals; and
- Allowing mid-year enrollment
changes in
cases where plans remove a medication from a
plan's formulary.
- Fund some of these
improvements by
ending the excessive federal subsidies for
private Medicare HMOs (known as Medicare
Advantage plans) compared to the traditional
Medicare program, which
subsidies
are designed to encourage the privatization
of the successful Medicare program regardless
of the costs. The CHAMP Act also is a
remarkable effort, in
that advocates from so many different
interest groups are working together to
support it.
If you are you in Rep. Chris Shays'
Congressional district (Southwestern CT), it
is particularly important to call. He is the
one member of Connecticut's House delegation
who might vote against this important
legislation broadly supported by advocates
for both children and the elderly/people with
disabilities, as well as the American Dental
Association, the American Medical Association
and others (you may have seen one of the ads
being run by them and AARP).
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