The two joined a number of other senators last week in asking Secretary Tommy G. Thompson that up to $2.7 billion in unspent State Children's Health Insurance Program funds be redistributed to states who started their programs as anticipated when the federal insurance program originally was authorized in 1997.
In 1997, Congress authorized a federal program to help states provide health insurance to the millions of children nationwide whose families have no health insurance. In Alaska, the program is called Denali Kid Care, and provides health care for about 15,000 children statewide.
Alaska, Maryland, Rhode Island and New Jersey are relying on a timely redistribution of these funds, Murkowksi said in a news release.
"Without these funds, these states will have insufficient federal funds to sustain their current SCHIP programs," she said. "No child currently enrolled in SCHIP should fall off the program in the coming months and become uninsured."
The state's original allotment last year was only $6.9 million, but the state received $12.4 million additionally due to the redistribution of unspent funds.
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
