The families of millions of children currently in State Children’s Health Insurance Program would have otherwise had private coverage, and most of the children that would be newly eligible already have private coverage.

Furthermore, the cost of expansion would be borne by poor families and seniors.

Most uninsured children are already eligible for SCHIP or Medicaid.

More than 8 million children lack coverage at some point during the year, and it is estimated that about 70 percent of these may qualify for public coverage.

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However, the duration of uninsured spells tends to be short, and only 4.9 million children are uninsured for the entire year.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), of the children who are uninsured for an entire year:

» More than one million children currently qualify for public coverage but are not enrolled.

» Another 1.1 million do not qualify because they are illegal (or temporary) immigrants.

» About 403,000 are income-eligible immigrants who have not been legal residents long enough to qualify for Medicaid benefits.

SCHIP expansion would do nothing to increase enrollment among children who are already eligible, and most of the additional children are already covered by private insurance.

Read the rest at: http://www.ncpa.org/pub/speech/2008/20080129-sp.html