HHS News Release

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Labor today forwarded to Congress a report by the Medical Child Support Working Group that contains recommendations to attempt to expand health coverage for children eligible for child support enforcement activities. The report, "Twenty-One Million Children's Health: Our Shared Responsibility," responds to the working group's statutory mandate to identify and provide recommendations to address barriers to the effective enforcement of medical support by state child support enforcement agencies.

The Medical Child Support Working Group is a federal advisory committee jointly established last year by the departments' Secretaries under the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998. It was formed to study and provide recommendations on how to improve the enforcement of medical support obligations for children.

Medical support orders, which provide for children's health care coverage, may require non-custodial parents to include their children under their employment-based health insurance coverage. They may be established and enforced with the help of state child support enforcement agencies.

It is estimated that three million of the 21 million children currently eligible for child support enforcement services are without any health care coverage. Copies of the 260-page report as well as questions and answers regarding its findings will be posted on the HHS Web site at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news.

"This report provides helpful recommendations to ensure that children receive critical health care coverage through every possible means including parents' private insurance or joint federal-state programs such as Medicaid or the State Child Health Insurance Program," said HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala. Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman added that the working group's report represents "an effort to ensure that we take responsibility for one of our nation's greatest resources, our children."

The Medical Child Support Working Group was made up of a diverse membership including representatives of the two departments, children's advocacy organizations, directors of state child support enforcement and Medicaid agencies, employers, and group health plans' sponsors and administrators.

Since taking office, the Clinton administration has made child support enforcement a high priority, resulting in an 80 percent increase in collections since 1992. The number of families receiving support increased by more than 59 percent during the same period, increasing to 4.5 million families in 1998. Approximately 2.8 million parents delinquent in child support payments were found last year by the National Directory of New Hires, which matches all employees, both newly hired and those already holding jobs, with a list of parents who owe child support. Paternity establishment rose to more than 1.4 million in 1998, an increase of more than 300 percent since 1992. And the new child support enforcement measures included in the new welfare reform law are projected to increase collections by billions over the next 10 years.

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Contact: Michael Kharfen, (202) 401-9215