[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 20, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6708-S6709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LUGAR (for himself and Mr. Bingaman):
  S. 1083. A bill to give States the flexibility to reduce bureaucracy 
by streamlining enrollment processes for the medicaid and State 
children's health insurance programs through better linkages with 
programs providing nutrition and related assistance to low-income 
families; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Children's 
Express Lane to Health Coverage Act of 2003. This bill will give States 
greater flexibility in the ways they can enroll uninsured children into 
Medicaid and SCHIP while at the same time increasing government 
efficiency. Furthermore, it will help States reduce bureaucracy and 
red-tape.
  In 1999, 4.4 million low-income uninsured children were in families 
that received benefits through Food Stamps, the National School Lunch 
Program, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, 
Infants and Children, WIC. Recognizing this, I worked to include a 
provision in the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000,

[[Page S6709]]

which allowed schools and school districts to share school lunch 
information with State health insurance agencies for outreach and 
enrollment activities.
  The good news is that this provision has inspired numerous States to 
share information with Medicaid and SCHIP for the purposes of 
enrollment and outreach. Some States and communities have gone even 
further and simplified the health insurance application process by 
utilizing information provided in another program application to make 
the eligibility or renewal determination for Medicaid and or SCHIP.
  Some States would like to go further still, and determine that a 
child is income eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP based on the fact that 
they have already been found eligible for a nutrition or other 
comparable program that operates under similar financial guidelines. 
Unfortunately, they have found Federal law not flexible enough.
  The Express Lane Act would give States the option of establishing 
that their Medicaid or SCHIP financial eligibility rules are satisfied 
when a family presents proof that their child is already enrolled in 
another public program with comparable income guidelines. Express lane 
does not affect other, non-income eligibility requirements and 
maintains existing quality control measures.
  If given the ability to adopt automatic income eligibility, as set 
out in The Children's Express Lane to Health Coverage Act of 2003, 
States could reach a tangible population of uninsured children, build 
upon the initiative already taken by families, eliminate multi-agency 
duplicative efforts to collect and verify income and resource 
eligibility, and at the same time maintain program integrity.
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