Georgetown launched a new policy center earlier this month dedicated to developing methods of improving the health of low-income families and extending health care coverage to more children nationwide.

The Health Policy Institute’s new Center for Children and Families was established May 5 to “inform the debate” about health insurance for low and moderate-income children and families, CCF Executive Director Cindy Mann said.

CCF will focus on the federal Medicaid program and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, through which 25 percent of children and nearly half of all low-income children receive their health coverage, according to a university release. The organization will also analyze employer-based coverage and public-private coverage initiatives.

Mann, who served as director of the Family and Children’s Health Program Group at the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration attributes her involvement with CCF to a “long-standing concern regarding the effect of uninsurance on children and families.”

“I have seen that these issues are solvable,” she said.

CCF recently published a policy brief written by Mann warning of negative effects on children’s health coverage from President Bush’s proposals for Medicaid and SCHIP. The brief said that the proposals’ cap on federal funding to states for Medicaid “would have a major impact on states’ ability to finance coverage and inevitably lead to fundamental changes in the program.”

Mann said that research has shown that publicly funded insurance programs are very effective for children, but not as effective for parents. She said that a combination of employer-based healthcare coverage and federally-funded coverage is necessary to ensure a wider range of coverage.

CCF opened just days after Congress agreed to a plan for a $10 billion cut in federal funding for Medicaid over the next four years.

Although Medicaid and SCHIP have helped to reduce the number of uninsured, low-income children by one-third since 1997, 9.1 million children and just under 11 million parents are currently uninsured, according to the CCF Web site and policy briefs released by the center. Federal law requires states to provide health insurance for only those families with children whose income falls below 33 percent of the federal poverty line – $442 per month for a family of three in 2005.

Over four million uninsured children come from families with an annual income below the federal poverty line, according to CCF. Over six million uninsured children come from families with at least one fulltime worker. Twenty-two percent of Hispanic children, 15 percent of black children, and just under 8 percent of white children are uninsured.

Other staff at CCF include Senior Program Directors Jocelyn Guyer, who was Associate Director of the Kaiser Commission on edicaid and the Uninsured, and Joan Alker, who was Associate Director of Government Affairs at Families USA. Lisa Dubay, CCF’s Research and Policy Advisor, is currently a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute.