Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell recently proposed the "Cover All Kids" initiative, aimed at providing health insurance coverage to nearly every child in the state. It comes on the heels of Illinois' "All Kids" program, set to be implemented this summer.
Cover All Kids targets the 133,589 Pennsylvania children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP, but too little to afford private coverage through their employer or the individual market. Similar to All Kids, Cover All Kids would charge premiums on a sliding scale, based on family income. An expansion of the state's SCHIP program, Cover All Kids would provide comprehensive care, including doctors' office visits, hospitalization, prescriptions, vision, home health care, mental health care, and substance abuse services. The governor estimates that 15,000 children could be covered in the first year of the program (2006–07), and that starting Cover All Kids would require $4.4 million in state funds, to be coupled with $10.2 million in federal funding for the first year of operation.
