PA still has 133,000 children without health insurance despite programs to assist

**NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN** · Jul 27, 2006

despite 13 years of state marketing efforts and millions of dollars in federal funding to ensure that every pennsylvania child has health insurance, nearly 133,600 youngsters are still without coverage, state officials say.

reading eagle, july 25, 2006

about 34,700 eligible children in the state are not enrolled for free health insurance through the state's children's health insurance program (chip), and another 35,000 eligible children are not enrolled to receive partially subsidized insurance under the same program - despite a rise in federal funding for the state's chip effort dollars intended to help the state expand the program to cover more children, reported the reading eagle. currently, about 143,500 children are enrolled statewide, while gov. ed rendell has introduced cover all kids, an initiative intended to expand chip's availability through additional state and federal dollars, removing the income cap for chip, providing free health insurance for families of four with a total income of less than $40,000 a year, and subsidizing coverage if the same family has a total income of between $40,000 and $70,000 annually, the reading eagle added.

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