New York

New York:  Covering Every New York Child

The New York Office of Health Insurance Programs (OHIP) within the state’s Department of Health is leading the Covering Every New York Child project as a grantee of the Maximizing Enrollment for Kids program. OHIP administers the state’s public health insurance programs, including Medicaid and New York’s separate State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) known as Child Health Plus. Together these programs cover children with family income up to 250% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Families with uninsured children with income above 250% of the FPL have the option to purchase Child Health Plus coverage. In September 2008, as part of the state’s recent children’s coverage initiative, New York implemented a sliding scale premium subsidy to assist families with incomes between 250% and 400% of the FPL purchase coverage for their uninsured children through the Child Health Plus program.

Over the last decade, New York’s Department of Health has worked to increase enrollment of children in Medicaid and Child Health Plus. The state created a single application for Medicaid and Child Health Plus and implemented a facilitated enrollment program allowing authorized community-based organizations and health plans to provide application assistance. As a grantee of the Maximizing Enrollment for Kids program, New York is hoping to further eliminate barriers to coverage as well as develop data collection tools that will allow OHIP to more effectively monitor enrollment and recertification trends.

Click here for a profile of New York’s Medicaid and CHIP programs and to learn about the state’s enrollment and renewal simplification strategies.

“Making coverage available and affordable for all families is critical to maximizing enrollment, but it is not sufficient. It is equally as important to ensure that families can enroll their children in the program without barriers.” – Governor David Paterson, 2008