Kathleen  Sebelius, the HHS Secretary, has recently announced that an additional $40 million in grants will be available for children’s health insurance programs. These funds are part of the new Childrens Health Insurance Re-authorization Act (CHIPRA), the renewed version of the original SCHIP. The new children’s health insurance program provides a total of $100 million for outreach campaigns aimed at reducing the number of low-income, uninsured children in the United States.

The children’s health insurance program has been quite successful already. The CMS Center for Medicaid and State Operations has acknowledged that the states have already enrolled over 30 million children in Medicaid and more than 7 million children in CHIP. Yet there are still children out there who are eligible for coverage, but aren’t yet utilizing the state health care programs. This new $40 million in grants is aimed at helping community organizations, tribal organizations, states, and local governments to reach out to more children and families through outreach campaigns and other efforts.

Applications for the first cycle of funding are available at Grants.gov. The application due dates are August 6, 2009 for those submitted electronically, and August 10, 2009 for those submitted by mail. The grants will be awarded by September 30, 2009. To be eligible for these health care grants, applicants must be:

• A state
• A local government
• An Indian tribe or tribal consortium or other tribal organization
• A federal health safety net organization
• A national, state, local, or community-based public or nonprofit private organization
• A certified faith-based organization or consortium
• An elementary or secondary school
• A consortium composed of two or more of these entities

These new funds come as good news in a time when our health care system is faltering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of Americans with private health insurance has hit its lowest mark in 50 years. In the 1970s and early 1980s, nearly 80% of Americans had private health insurance coverage. In 2007, that number was at 67%, and in 2008 the number fell to 65%.

Fortunately, not all adults without private health insurance are uninsured. Public coverage of adults is rising in several states, due to expanded eligibility for programs like Medicaid. Still, the CDC has estimated that about 44 million Americans were uninsured last year. Fortunately, the public coverage of children has risen quite drastically over the last 10 years – now more than one in three children is covered by a public health plan.