The Beshear Plan: Our Children, Our Promise
What is The Beshear Plan?
The Beshear Plan improves the Kentucky Children's Health Insurance Program (KCHIP), which provides children's health insurance to low and middle-income families who qualify.
The Beshear Plan greatly increases the commonwealth's outreach efforts to find, enroll and keep eligible children in the program. It also increases education to enrolled families about what benefits are available to them through KCHIP. The Beshear Plan also removes a barrier that required applying families to have a face-to-face interview with a caseworker before their children could enroll. Parents must still verify their income to prove eligibility.
Why The Beshear Plan?
Children need health insurance. There are an estimated 67,000 children in Kentucky eligible for KCHIP or Medicaid who are not enrolled. The Beshear Plan is part of a much larger answer to identify and insure all Kentucky children who are eligible.
Who is eligible for The Beshear Plan?
The Beshear Plan insures children whose families earn less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. For example, a family of four can make up to $47,100.00 per year.
What will The Beshear Plan mean for Kentucky?
The Beshear Plan is, in part, an answer for moving Kentucky forward and renewing our promise to our children - that we will give them every opportunity for success. Children need health insurance because:
- Study after study suggests that children's health status impacts their academic achievement in the short and long term.
- The Beshear Plan will result in long-term savings on treatment of adult health conditions and reduce unnecessary emergency room visits for children.
What will The Beshear Plan cost?
The KCHIP program is a federal matching program. If The Beshear Plan meets its projected goals, the program will cost $6 million dollars the first year (2009) and $25 million in the next year (2010). However, the federal match to our dollars will pull in more than $81 million dollars into the commonwealth.
|