Plan Widens Health Care for Children

President Clinton announced a series of steps to bring some of the 10 million children without health insurance into government-funded health care programs. Clinton announced the efforts, which chiefly involve enrolling children already eligible for Medicaid in the government-sponsored health care program, in a speech at the Children’s National Medical Center in the nation’s capital. Medicaid, which is administered by states, is the main government program offering health insurance for low-income children. The White House estimates that 3 million of the 10 million uninsured U.S. children are eligible for it. “I still have a hard time believing that this country--with the finest health care system in the world--cannot figure out how to give affordable, quality health insurance coverage to every single child in America,” Clinton told about 200 children, nurses and doctors in the hospital’s atrium.