CHIP on chopping block again?

For the second time in a month, 14 million children in the Children's Health Insurance Program, including at least 25,000 West Virginia kids, are slated to be shifted into private insurance plans that are not required to provide equal benefits.

The House of Representatives health-care reform plan would dismantle CHIP in 2013 and move most of the children into commercial insurance plans.

In early October, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., squelched a similar proposal in the Senate health reform bill. He successfully amended the Senate bill to preserve CHIP until 2019.

It would cost $15 billion more to serve the children with private insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office. "I simply don't think there's any reason to pay $15 billion to dismantle a program that works and transfer millions of children into an uncertain, risky situation," Rockefeller said.

Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Tuesday, "The fact that the House bill essentially dumps CHIP is yet another example of pieces of this bill that just don't add up."

Capito has supported the CHIP program since she was in the state Legislature, she said. "The fact that [the health reform bill] takes aim at a popular program that we know is effective only further demonstrates that this bill isn't ready for prime time."

Rockefeller will be one of the conferees who merge the Senate and House bills into a final package if both houses pass bills, he said Tuesday, and CHIP will be one of his top priorities. "These are children -- we should do all we can to shield them from harm. Period," he said.

If the children were moved to private insurance, their parents would also pay significantly more in premiums and out-of-pocket expense, according to an actuarial study by financial consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Using data from 17 states, researchers found that, at 175 to 225 percent of poverty, parents of CHIP children paid up to 2 percent of their child's treatment. If the same children were transferred to private plans, their parents would pay between 5 and 35 percent of the cost of care.

"Most of these parents are working people who are counting dollars," said Renate Pore, health care analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. Families eligible for CHIP make too much to be eligible for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance, she said.

"CHIP is the stronger coverage package, and we are very concerned about the idea that those kids would be moved over without some protection," said Bruce Lesley, director of First Focus, the national child advocacy group that commissioned the actuarial study.

The CHIP program includes developmental screening and preventative care that is not covered by most adult plans. It covers a wide range of services, including doctor and hospital visits, immunizations and prescriptions, tests and X-rays, diabetic care, and dental and vision care. It provides case management for children with special needs.

"There are many wonderful parts of the reform legislation, and many things in health care that need to be changed," Lesley said, "but this is one that should be left alone."