Congress

• On February 4, 2009 one of the first pieces of legislation signed by President Obama, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), expanded CHIP and added $33 billion in federal funds in hopes of lowering the rate of uninsured children in the United States. In 2009, approximately 7 million children were enrolled in CHIP. The Reauthorization Act was designed to cover a million more children a year from 2009 to 2013 who otherwise would have been uninsured.
  
  

Eligibility

• Starting in 2009 CHIP allows for coverage of pregnant women.pregnant image by TEA from Fotolia.com
  
  Previously, states individually could allow women to cover their unborn child which inadvertently covered the mother. However starting in 2009, in addition to children being eligible for CHIP, the new Act allows pregnant women to be covered. Another change to CHIP eligibility is allowing states to design their program to cover legal immigrant children for the first 5 years they are in the United States. Each state however can also determine whether they impose income guidelines in order to be eligible for the program.
  
  

Financial Incentives

• Financial incentives3d dollar sign image by lixai from Fotolia.com
  
  CHIPRA gives states a monetary incentive to change and simplify their eligibility rules. For instance if they no longer have income levels be a determining factor in coverage they may be eligible for a a bonus payment from the federal government. The goal of CHIPRA is to get more children covered, therefore states who run out of funds due to increased enrollment are eligible to receive additional money from a contingency fund.
  
  

Benefits

• Under the original CHIP, the federal government did not make coverage for dental services a benefit that was mandatory to be offered under a state's program. Beginning with the passing of CHIPRA, the federal government required all states to include dental coverage under their benefit plan design. State's also are required to implement the mental health parity law which dictates mental illness must be treated like any other illness and can not be excluded from coverage.
  
  

Enrollment

• A new tool was created due to CHIPRA to make the enrollment process easier. The tool is called Express Lane Eligibility (ELE), according to The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, "It allows state Medicaid and CHIP agencies to utilize data and eligibility findings from other public need-based programs, such as Head Start or Food Stamps, and/or tax return data to identify, enroll and recertify children rather than requiring them to re-analyze and determine eligibility under their own rules."