HHS efforts to enroll more kids clash with struggling state budgets

The Department of Health and Human Services' efforts to enroll more eligible children in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program "are being hurt by the financial reality of state budgets," American Medical News reports. "HHS is allocating $120 million in Medicaid and CHIP outreach grants to states under the 2009 CHIP reauthorization and the national health reform law. But [HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius said some states are facing multibillion-dollar budget deficits and might not have the funds to expand or improve their Medicaid and CHIP programs significantly" (Trapp, 9/20).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.