Eleven states have received federal grants to help design programs to provide health coverage for uninsured residents.
| State grants |
| State |
Amount |
| Arkansas |
$1,393,322 |
| Delaware |
$800,900 |
| Illinois |
$1,200,000 |
| Iowa |
$1,303,731 |
| Kansas |
$1,298,205 |
| Massachusetts |
$1,069,195 |
| Minnesota |
$1,630,931 |
| New Hampshire |
$1,033,315 |
| Oregon |
$1,253,264 |
| Vermont |
$1,288,892 |
| Wisconsin |
$1,349,846 |
| Total |
$13,621,601 |
The
grants, handed out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) on Sept. 22, total $13.6 million. Recipients will conduct studies
to identify the characteristics of the uninsured. They will use that
data to determine the most effective way to provide affordable health insurance similar to plans that cover government employees.
Each
state also must report back to the HHS at the end of its one-year grant
detailing its proposal to expand public-private partnerships to cover
uninsured residents. "We expect to receive some interesting and inventive
models for covering the uninsured that will be very useful to other
states and the nation as a whole," says Dr. Claude Earl Fox,
administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, a
branch of the HHS that will administer the grant program. The state planning grants come on the heels of $22 million
in funds awarded to 23 communities to help local health care providers
create networks to offer health care to the uninsured.
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