Private health insurance can be too expensive for some families to purchase. State run programs, like Utah’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, can help Utah families that don’t have health insurance coverage for their kids. Here are some details about the eligibility requirements.
The state of Utah has several different public health insurance programs. In addition to their Medicaid program, Utah also has a CHIP program. CHIP stands for Children’s Health Insurance Program. CHIP is a state run health insurance plan for children who come from families that are unable to afford to buy health insurance coverage for their kids.
It is funded by the state and federal governments. In Utah, CHIP received four federal dollars for every one dollar that the state contributes to it. All of the state funds that go into CHIP come from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
CHIP is administered by the Utah Department of Health. The program contracts with SelectHealth and Molina Healthcare of Utah to provide health care services, and contracts with Premier Access and DentaQuest to provide dental care services.
In order to be eligible for coverage by CHIP in Utah, a child must be under the age of 19. The child must also be a United States citizen or a legal resident of the United States. Children who are currently covered by another health insurance plan will not be considered eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. CHIP does not take into account any pre-existing condition your child has when deciding about eligibility into the program.
There are income guidelines that must be met in order to be eligible for CHIP. This means that families that make more income, either per month or per year, than what is allowable for CHIP cannot have their children covered by this program. The 2012 income guidelines are listed in the FAQ section of their website.
Typically, a family will be required to pay a premium every quarter. The maximum amount can be up to $75.00 per quarter. It is a set amount that is not determined by the number of children in your family that are covered by CHIP. Families using CHIP will also have to pay co-pays at the time that their child received health care or dental care. Families will not have to pay more than 5% of their income (minus the CHIP quarterly premiums) in co-pays and premiums per benefit year.
It is worth noting that children who use CHIP will have their medical information automatically added into the Utah Clinical Health Information Exchange. Once your child is enrolled in CHIP, his or her consent status is set to “participate” until the child turns 18 years old. Parents have the right to change that status, if they want to.
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