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Prenatal Care: Revisions to SCHIP Extend Health Care to “Unborn Children”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Valerie Gutmann
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Extract

Effective November 1, 2002, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reclassified developing fetuses as “unborn children,” thereby providing health insurance benefits for prenatal care under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). By broadening the current definition of “child” —and thus expanding SCHIP insurance coverage — DHHS hopes to increase the number of low-income pregnant women who receive prenatal services. As noted by one commentator, the new rule represents the first time “any federal policy has defined childhood as beginning at conception.”

In an attempt to improve access to publicly funded health insurance for poor children not covered by Medicaid, Congress established SCHIP a 10-year, $40 billion program jointly funded by federal and state governments. Through a series of block grants, SCHIP allows states to either expand income-eligibility for their existing Medicaid program or to create a separate child health program to decrease the number of uninsured poor and near-poor children.

Type
Recent Developments in Health Law
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , Spring 2003 , pp. 155 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2003

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References

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