alaskan problems in funding schip

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18,000 Alaska children do not have health insurance. Half of those children are from working families. The cost of health insurance keeps rising, and many Alaskans are out of luck if they don't work for a company that offers health insurance, or if they don't qualify for Medicaid.

Today thirty-nine states offer free health insurance to children of families that earn up to 200% of the federal poverty level (roughly $34,000 in annual income for a single parent and child). That's what Alaska did under our "Denali Kid Care" SCHIP plan until the 2003 cut. Alaska now has the third lowest eligibility level in the nation. We now deny insurance to children of families that earn more than 154% of the poverty level, and roughly 3,000 Alaska children have lost Denali Kid Care coverage since 2003. According to state officials, Alaska's SCHIP eligibility level is so low that we risk being disqualified from federal SCHIP funding next year.

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