New LaCHIP plan insures more children

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 23, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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They work at car dealerships, engineering firms, oilfield supply businesses, government offices and retail stores such as Wal-Mart.

They are among the parents who have enrolled their children in a new state-subsidized health insurance program.

In its first month of existence, the new “Affordable Plan” in the Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program, called LaCHIP, has allowed 622 children in moderate income families to get health insurance coverage.

The parents pay a $50 monthly premium — no matter the number of children per household. There are deductibles and co-payments too.

“It’s a pretty good deal,” said Crystal Bob, who recently enrolled her two young children. They have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders.

A co-pay for medicine the children require still exists and costs can get expensive, but it is better than her prior situation, Bob said.

The children had been insured, but when their father died, the family lost coverage, Bob said. “I had not been able to afford health insurance. I was paying out-of-pocket,” said the 31-year-old New Iberia resident.

Bob said she had too much income previously for her children — ages 4 and 6 — to qualify for other government health programs.

At no cost to parents, traditional LaCHIP covers children in families with incomes up to double the federal poverty level, which is a sliding scale dependent on the number of family members. That’s a $42,400 value for a family of four.

The new plan covers children in families with incomes from double to 2‰ times the federal poverty level and parents must help cover costs. That’s $53,000 for a family of four.

In Bob’s family-of-three situation, it was the difference between incomes of $35,000 to $44,000 annually.