How Does the Parent Expansion Option Relate to the New Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP)?
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 created a child health block grant that can be used by states to expand Medicaid for children or to establish or expand separate child health insurance programs. Although there are some limited exceptions, the child health block grant funds generally cannot be used to provide health care coverage to parents. States that are interested in providing health care to all members of low-income families not just to the children in these families can do so by combining the Medicaid parent expansion option discussed here with the opportunities created by the child health block grant to expand coverage for children. For example, a state could expand Medicaid to cover both the parents and the children in low-income working families and receive the enhanced federal matching payments available under the child health law for the children’s coverage. Wisconsin, which will soon implement an expansion of coverage to parents and children with income below 185 percent of t
