Children's Health Insurance Program in Utah

Let’s talk about children, everybody has some or knows someone who does. A recent study exposed this nasty fact; there are 82,000 children in Utah who do not have health insurance. So, Utah’s legislature, the source of so much useless knowledge, has decided it is the parent’s fault because they don’t know about CHIP, the Childhood Health Insurance Program.

Currently, there is a bill in the Utah State Legislature to study this lack of knowledge “problem” and increase the distribution of information about the CHIP program, which provides insurance to those children whose family income does not exceed certain levels. This bill would allow the state to spend $173,000 per year, for a period of 5 years, to study the problem and provide outreach about the programs.

Here’s why I think our legislature is missing the mark-again.

The maximum gross income for a family of 4 to qualify for CHIP is $4,367 per month. If we assume that both parents work at minimum wage jobs, their gross income is $2600; and childcare takes $930 for two children. In all probability, one parent is going to stay home with the children to avoid the childcare cost. At this level, CHIP works for them.

Let’s bump the income level up a bit. Let’s put dad at $15.00 per hour, and mom at $11.00. Their gross income is $4506 per month. Childcare for 2 children still takes $930. Now, they don’t qualify for CHIP.  And, at this income level the family does not qualify for SNAP or federal student lunch programs. The average cost of health insurance in Utah for this family is $1614. If you add the cost of daycare to the insurance, the family is spending $2543 per month, leaving only $2000 per month for housing, food, and transportation.

No, Representative Welton, the problem is not that people don’t know about the programs; the problem is the extremely low-income cut-off for qualification in Utah. A “family values” state indeed.

You don’t need a focus group, legislative study group, or $173,000 per year for 5 years. All you need is common sense, a commodity that in short supply in our state legislators.

Thank you for reading, your comments are always welcome.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman