WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama made more children from middle-class families eligible for government health insurance Thursday by lifting a directive imposed by his predecessor.
In 2007, the Bush administration said it would strictly adhere to guidelines that limited the scope of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
A year later, it backed off its threat to penalize states that enrolled middle-class children without first proving they had enrolled nearly all poorer children first.
In a memorandum issued Thursday, Obama completely lifted the restrictions, which many governors and Democratic lawmakers said were nearly impossible to meet.
Obama said in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services that “tens of thousand of children have been denied health care coverage” because of the directive.
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Obama lifts CHIP restrictions
February 10, 2009
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