presidents budget may provide states

and Congressional Budget Office, "Additional Information on CBO's

Estimate of the Administration's SCHIP Proposals," March 9, 2007.

[2] As part of the extension of SCHIP through March 2009, Congress

provided $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2008 and $275 million in fiscal

year 2009 above the $5.0 billion-a-year baseline funding level in

order to avert the federal funding shortfalls otherwise projected to

occur through March 2009.

[3] Cindy Mann and Michael Odeh, "Moving Backward: Status Report on

the Impact of the August 17 SCHIP Directive to Impose New Limit on

States' Ability to Cover Uninsured Children," Center for Children and

Families at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute,

December 2007. States already covering children above 250 percent of

the poverty line must comply with the August 17, 2007 directive by

August 17, 2008. States implementing planned expansions were

effectively barred from covering such children upon issuance of the

directive.

[4] States already covering children with incomes between 200 percent

and 250 percent of the poverty line could apparently continue to cover

such children, but only at a reduced SCHIP matching rate or the

federal Medicaid matching rate. (On average, the federal government

pays for 70 percent of the costs of SCHIP but 57 percent of the costs

of Medicaid.)

[5] The August 17, 2007 guidance requires states to use a gross income

test, under which all family income is counted in determining whether

the family's income exceeded the guidance's limit on SCHIP coverage of

children with incomes in excess of 250 percent of the poverty line.

The President's budget proposal would codify this 250 percent of

poverty gross income limit.