California last week announced it would begin dropping children from its Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
In February, when the U.S. Congress expanded the program (previously known as the State Children's Health Insurance Program [SCHIP]), advocates estimated it might bring oral healthcare to an additional 4 million children who currently lacked coverage. But others noted that the program would depend on full support from state governments, which might not be forthcoming.
Now that fear is proving justified. Last week, the directors of California's CHIP service, the Healthy Families Program, announced that beginning October 1 they would deny coverage to some children and pregnant women who had already been accepted into the program.
More than 60,000 people would lose their coverage and 669,296 could ultimately be dropped, according to the Los Angeles Times.
California cut its budget severely this year because of a $24 billion deficit resulting from the economic downturn. The cuts left Healthy Families with a shortfall of $112.6 million in state funds.
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