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What the Senate and House Health Reform Efforts Mean for Children - Friday, January 22, 2010

The House health bill would produce one set of outcomes for Texas children who are uninsured, on Medicaid, or covered by CHIP, and the Senate would produce another. Some great resources for understanding the ins and outs have been compiled by Texans and others around the country:

A major issue is the future of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For a good sumary of the differences between the House and Senate approaches to CHIP, see this New York Times blog post.
The Center for Children and Families has tracked progress on key health reform issues affecting children on its blog Say Ahhh! A recent post explains that the Senate bill would help preserve the CHIP program through 2015, and would also make it against the law for insurers to deny coverage to children with preexisting health conditions immediately upon the bill's signing.
UPDATED: The Bazelon Center has analyzed the mental health provisions in each of the bills and provides an analysis of what each version would mean for mental health coverage.
An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says most children would be as well off or better under the House health reform bill.
The Texas Voice for Health Reform has informative blog posts on the issues, including on what the House bill would mean for Texans with insurance and for those who are low-income.
Health Affairs blogger Timothy Jost tracked provisions in the Senate health reform bill dealing with both Medicaid and CHIP.
Voices for America's Children released its statement on what the Senate efforts mean for kids. Learn more.
Another national child advocacy organization working closely with Voices, First Focus, produced a paper comparing the existing CHIP program to the proposed new health care exchange plans, as well as a summary of how children would fare with CHIP, Medicaid, and private coverage under the various bills.
The Urban Institute also has an analysis comparing what the health care proposals would mean for children currently eligible for CHIP or Medicaid.
Finally, for an overview of the big issues uninsured children in Texas face, we recommend this great summary from Tarrant County CHIP Coalition Co-Chair Sandy Lutz in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.