Guam Del. Michael San Nicolas is suggesting that money that may become available by lifting the match requirement for Guam's Medicaid funds could be used to extend health insurance coverage for the children in foster care on island.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign a bill passed by Congress that includes a 100% subsidy for access to Affordable Care Act funds for Guam, eliminating the need for the $5.6 million match proposed in Sen. Therese Terlaje's Bill 78-35.
In a letter to Sen. Terlaje, San Nicolas proposes that at least a small portion of that $5.6 million could be used to revive the private health insurance plan for the more than 200 children in foster care on Guam.
"Recent news indicates that these children and families ... lost their GovGuam Health insurance on June 1," wrote San Nicolas.
In his letter, he said the cost of continuing the foster care health insurance program would be "a small portion" of the $5.6 million that may be saved from the elimination of the matching fund requirement.
He cites Sen. Amanda Shelton's recently introduced Bill 139-35, which seeks $320,000 to extend foster care coverage through the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Private health insurance funding for children in foster care is already required by Public Law 32-189, the bill which was introduced in 2014 by then-Sen. San Nicolas.
Tess Arcangel, the administrator of the Department of Public Health and Social Services Division of Public Welfare, told The Guam Daily Post that local children in foster care will still be covered under CHIP, the federally funded Children's Health Insurance Program.
However, foster families have complained that CHIP is not accepted by many physicians on island.
Sen. Terlaje has not yet had the chance to responded to San Nicolas' letter.
