Family gross
income is the main determinant of eligibility
for Medicaid and the
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
West Virginia children are eligible for Medicaid
or CHIP health care coverage if their families’
gross income does not exceed 200 percent of the
“federal poverty level.” In some cases,
children in families earning more than 200
percent of the federal poverty level are still
eligible if the family qualifies for certain
deductions, such as childcare expenses.
Beginning in
March, 2006, a family of three can earn as much
as $2,767 per month and their uninsured children
will still qualify for CHIP. Deductions for
child care expenses and a $90 per month (not $95
as stated in a recent e-mail from us) per
working parent allowance may permit children in
families at a higher income level to still
qualify. Larger families can earn even more
without the children losing qualification. A
chart showing annual and monthly income
guidelines for different types of families is
available
here.
Every March,
the federal government adjusts the amount of
money that families can earn to be eligible for
programs based on the federal poverty
guidelines. Guidelines published in March 2006
will reflect increases in prices through the
calendar year 2005.
In case you
wondered how the federal government defines and
calculates poverty, here’s the story.
The poverty
thresholds were originally developed in
1963-1964 by the Social Security Administration
(SSA). The SSA took the dollar costs of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's economy food
plan for families of three or more persons and
multiplied the costs by three. The factor of
three was used because the Agriculture
Department's 1955 Household Food Consumption
Survey found that for families of three or more
persons, the average dollar value of all food
used during a week (both at home and away from
home) accounted for about one third of their
total money income after taxes.
In May 1965,
the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity adopted
the poverty thresholds as a working or
quasi-official definition of poverty. In August
1969, the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (predecessor
of the Office of Management and Budget)
designated the poverty thresholds with certain
revisions as the federal government's official
statistical definition of poverty. Today
eligibility for many federal, state and local
programs is based on these guidelines.
