State Health Insurance -- According to Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau splits all insurance coverage into two groups. It is either private coverage or coverage through the government. These two groups have divisions within each group. There are three divisions in the private coverage group; and likewise, three divisions in the governmental group.

The government insurance coverage is classified as Federal Health Care Plans, State Health Care Plans and Local Health Care Plans. Each plan is funded by the government at that level. In addition to these three classifications, there are six categories of government insurance coverage. They are Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, Military Health Care, State-specific plans and Indian Health Service.

Most people know that Medicare is for people sixty-five and over and for some people with disabilities who are under sixty-five.

Many people have heard of Medicaid, and know that it is Health Care for low income but are not really sure what the coverage area includes. Medicaid is one of the State Health Care Plans which is administered by the state and was developed for low or no-income families. This insurance is not for individuals or people who are married with no children, unless they are blind, disabled or aged and are in financial need. Depending on the state, Medicaid may be called by a different name.

SCHIP or the State Children's Health Insurance Program is one of the State Health Care Plans that is given matching funds from the federal government so that health insurance may be provided to families with children. SCHIP was created to give health insurance to families with children who have income that is high enough they do not qualify for low income programs such as Medicaid and have no other source of insurance for their children.

Every state has one of the approved State Health Care Plans for SCHIP coverage. Each state can develop their own SCHIP eligibility requirements and policies, but they must stay within the wide-ranging federal guidelines. In some states, the SCHIP funds can be used to cover pregnant women, the parents of children who are also receiving benefits from Medicaid, and other adults.

However, even with this coverage in place the number of uninsured children in the United States continues to rise. The Vimo Research Group conducted a study in October of 2007 that concluded 68.7 percent of these children were in families whose incomes were two hundred percent of the federal poverty level or higher. Several states had deficits in their SCHIP funding in fiscal year 2008.

State Health Insurance

State health insurance helps many people who are denied health insurance because of a medical condition or they are required to pay exorbitant insurance premiums. Insurance companies categorize these people as high risk and many states now offer risk pools to people who cannot afford health insurance due to their medical condition or those who just cannot afford them high premiums.

Although health insurance is not cheap but there are ways to get short term state health insurance through state risk pools. These risk pools are funded by the state through different means like taxes on hospital revenues. However, the main source of funding comes from grouping people together so that the group as a whole gets a competitive rate for the health insurance policy. This works similar to an employer's health insurance policy. And, the balance cost is are paid by the state.

This type of state health insurance has limited funding and is not cheap; but it offers people health insurance for short term until they can qualify for something more affordable and reasonably priced.

In order to qualify for a state risk pool, you should be a resident of the state you are applying in. Also, you should fulfill at least one of the following criteria:

· You have to show proof that health insurance was denied to you
· Your current health insurance premium should be more than the risk pool premium
· You should have a health insurance but your carrier denies payment for certain medical services or pre-existing health condition.

When you have state high risk pool health insurance policy, you cannot have Medicaid or Medicare, but some states have programs that allow people to be part of high risk pool plans while still being eligible for Medicare.