Boustany promotes LaCHIP expansion
By Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
OPELOUSAS– Congressman Charles Boustany visited the Opelousas Housing Authority Tuesday to spread the word about the recent expansion of the LaCHIP program.
“I’m here to encourage families to enroll in this program, to seek out information,” Boustany said.
“This program has been given 5 billion additional dollars to continue to enroll children who are very needy and who come from families that don’t have the means to purchase health insurance, and yet they don’t fit into the Medicaid criteria.”
The LaCHIP program, a federal-state partnership, was created in 1997 to provide health care coverage for uninsured children.
LaCHIP only provides coverage for uninsured children in families with income of up to 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), or $42,400 a year for a family of four.
The new LaCHIP Affordable Plan provides coverage for uninsured children in families with income of up to 250 percent of the FPL, or $53,000 a year for a family of four.
LaCHIP Affordable has a $50 monthly premium per family, and co-payments based on a percentage of the visit cost, with out-of-pocket expenses not to exceed 5 percent of the family’s gross income.
According to the 2007 Health Insurance Survey, 5.7 percent of children living in St. Landry Parish, 5.4 percent statewide, are uninsured.
This is a decrease from 2005’s figures of 8.9 percent in the parish and 7.6 percent statewide, which is attributed to extensive outreach efforts in the Acadiana region.
The LaCHIP Affordable plan is part of a 5 billion, five-year reauthorization of the federal program.
“That’s something that I’ve fought for since I’ve been in Congress,” Boustany said, “to ensure that we put the program on a sustainable growth rate that would allow for 100 percent of coverage for those children it was intended for and to make sure that the program is actually working and that we’re actually enrolling children.”
Earlier this year, Boustany had voted against a reauthorization of the program which would have increased funding by $35 billion over a five-year period and allowed states the option of expanding coverage.
Despite Boustany’s opposition, the bill reached President Bush’s desk where it was vetoed; Boustany again opposed the bill in the veto override.
Boustany defended his votes last month in Lafayette, saying the bill made no provision to enhance enrollment and would have expanded coverage to adults and immigrants.
The bill did include grants for enrollment efforts and would have given states the option of expanding coverage to include low-income pregnant women and legal immigrants.
For more information or enrollment, call toll-free 1-877-252-2477 or visit the program web site at www.lachip.org.