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Child-Only Health Policies Once Again Available in Kansas

By Elana Gordon

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-973343.mp3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A new law in Kansas is making it easier for kids who aren't covered under their parent's plans to get health insurance. Finding such child-only health policy plans hasn't always been a problem in Kansas. But as KCUR's Elana Gordon reports, difficulties emerged after a federal policy aimed at expanding health coverage to children recently took effect.

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The new Kansas law makes children eligible for individual health coverage through the state's high risk insurance pool, even if they don't have the usually-required proof they were either denied health coverage or charged a high premium rate in the private market.

The Kansas Department of Insurance proposed this exception after learning that most insurance companies in the state had stopped offering child-only health plans last fall, making it impossible for kids to either get private coverage on their own or obtain that denial letter needed to apply for state coverage.

Linda Sheppard, with the Kansas Department of Insurance, says the plans aren't that common to begin with, but the state sill wanted to make sure they were available for families without other options.

"Primarily who it impacts is, if you're a parent and your employer that you work with offers coverage for employees only, but doesn't offer dependent coverage. And so you'd be in a situation where you'd want to buy a policy for your children if couldn't get that through your employer," Sheppard says. "Or if you are a guardian or a grandparent raising a grandchild or another child that you're responsible for, you might have your own coverage but you might need to go out and get coverage for the child."

Insurance companies quit selling child-only plans after a new provision of the federal health law kicked in last year, barring companies from denying children health coverage due to a pre-existing health condition (the measure applies to everyone in 2014). Many companies said they stopped selling the plans over concerns that families might wait until a child gets sick and needs costly medical care before signing them up for coverage.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City is the only company in either Kansas or Missouri still selling child-only plans (Under the new law, families living in that coverage area would still have to apply for private coverage before being eligible for the state pool).

The new Kansas law takes effect this month. The measure isn't relevant in Missouri, where the state's high risk pool already does not require people to show a proof-of-denial in order to be eligible for coverage.

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