Plans To Insure American Uninsured Children In USA

Various plans to extend health care insurance to the USA's almost 10million currently uninsured children have been proposed at both state and federal levels. More than half the states are now considering projects to expand Medicaid or to build programs that help families buy private insurance. Some of the federal proposals would send money to the states to expand or create programs subsidizing the cost of insurance, while others offer direct help in the form of tax credits or vouchers.

According to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, the move is part of the Clinton Administration's effort to expand health insurance incrementally, rather than reform the system wholesale. The Administration plan calls for covering five million children over the next five years by enrolling more who are eligible for Medicaid and by giving states $750 million a year to develop or expand subsidy programs.

Suggestions are coming from both sides of the congressional aisle. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Democrat Edward Kennedy are sponsoring one such bill, while Republican Senators Arlen Specter and Phil Gramm are backing another. Most of the plans attempt to find money to give to the states to expand health insurance to children rather than to create a Medicare for children, according to Merrill Mathews of the National Center for Policy Analysis.