Ensuring Children's Access to Comprehensive Health Benefits: Effective Arguments for Child Advocates. Issue Brief

Under Title XXI, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), states have considerable flexibility to define the scope of benefits available to eligible children. Noting the importance of policymakers, advocates, service providers, and parents speaking out in support of children's need for the full range of necessary health care, this issue brief provides supporting information to use in encouraging states to offer comprehensive benefit packages. The brief focuses on the services considered to be "additional" or "other" in Title XXI: (1) mental health and substance abuse services; (2) ongoing therapies and rehabilitation; (3) dental care; (4) vision services; (5) hearing services; (6) family planning; and (7) home health care. Depending on the extent of the research available on specific services, the following types of information are provided: (1) the short- and long-term effectiveness of services; (2) cost-benefit analyses of providing services; and (3) actuarial cost estimates of adding services to basic benefit packages. Also included in the brief is a delineation of the Title XXI coverage requirements for children's health insurance. The brief concludes by noting that it is critical that states designing separate children's health coverage go above and beyond the basic benefits that are required and that providing such coverage improves children's lives, avoids the needs for more costly interventions later, and is the right approach to ensure access to appropriate health care for the nation's children. (Contains approximately 30 references.) (KB)