State of New York provides health insurance for children through Child Health Plus and Children's Medicaid program. If your child meets general eligibility for the program, he or she will be placed in either Child Health Plus or Children's Medicaid depending on family income.

Child Health Plus is a comprehensive medical insurance plan that provides all the necessary services to the children living in state of New York.

The program requires the child to be resident of state of New York in order to qualify for the program. Your also be required to provide a proof of your child's citizenship. All U.S citizens, legal aliens, and certain classes of immigrants are qualified to apply for the program.

If your child qualifies for Children's Medicaid or has any other health insurance, he or she will not be eligible for Child Health Plus program.

In order to enroll your child in Child Health Plus program, you can contact your local Department of Social Services. You can also download applications from ACCESS website or choose to fill and print them online. Once you have completed the application, you can either drop it at your local office of Department of Social Services or send it by mail.

The program provides various benefits for enrolled children. These benefits include doctor visits, transportation, emergency care, inpatient and outpatient services, eye and dental services, mental health services, prescription drugs, immunizations, etc.

Eligibility Requirements

Children will have to meet the following eligibility guidelines before they can be accepted in the Child Health Plus program

• Must be a resident of New York State
• Must be under the age of 19 years
• Must not be eligible for the coverage available through public employee's health benefits plan
• Must not have any other health insurance

If a child was receiving health benefits provided by employer-based insurance but the benefits have stopped, such child can qualify for New York child Health Plus but may have a waiting period before he or she can start receiving benefits.

If you child meets all the general eligibility requirements, he or she will only get coverage through Child Health Plus program if family income and resources are within the limits set by the program. You can check the income chart for Child Health Plus to see if your child can qualify for it or not.

If you want to be certain whether your child will qualify for the program or not, you can easily use screening tool provided by ACCESS NY.This screening tool will help you determine your child's eligibility without having to apply for the program.

Premium

If your family income is below 1.6 times the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), then you will not have to pay any premium. However, families with income greater than this limit may have to pay a small premium between $9 and $60 for each child depending on your family income and resources.

SCHIP Application Instructions

In order to apply for the program, you will have the following options:

Apply through Community Organizations:

You can contact your nearest Community Organization to enroll your child in the Child Health Plus program. You can find a list of Community Organizations operating in the state, their contact details, and address Here.

Apply through local Department of Social Services:

You can apply through local Department of Social Services. The Department will decide whether your child qualifies for New York Child Health Plus or Medicaid program depending on family income. Even if your child only qualifies for Medicaid, the Department of Social Services will enroll him or her for Medicaid program without requiring another application or procedure to be followed for Children's Medicaid.

Apply by participating in Child Health Plus Insurers by County:

You can apply for the program by simply applying through a provider operating in your county. You can get a list of all the operators and their contact details Here.

Apply by Mail:

You can also apply by mail. You can download the application, fill it and then send it to Child Health Plus or drop it at your nearest office of Department of Social Services.

You can also download the application in Spanish

You can also fill applications online and then print them. Make sure that you are choosing 'fill and print' from ACCESS NY Health website. Remember, you will not be able to edit application by hand once you have chosen 'fill and print' option.

When you apply, you will have to provide various supporting documents. These documents will be used for determining your eligibility for the program. You can see here what documents you need when to attach. with your application.

Benefits: Your child will have access to following benefits, if enrolled in the program.

• Doctor visits
• Inpatient services
• Outpatient services
• Emergency care services
• Lab tests and other lab related services
• Rehabilitative therapy
• Immunizations and preventive health care services
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Gynecological services
• Speech therapy
• Dental and vision services
• Prescription drugs
• Transportation