Congress and President Bush are struggling over financing to expand SCHIP, although expectations are that it will continue to be funded at current levels for at least the next year.
Because the state Medicaid expansion and Howard County's program are to begin July 1, the comptroller's statewide letter could go out in June, Folkemer said.
In Maryland, 103,000 children are enrolled in SCHIP, which has an income ceiling of three times the federal poverty level, which makes the ceiling $41,070 for a family of two up to $103,710 for a family of eight. About 300,000 children are covered by Medicaid, the program for lower-income families, Folkemer said.
"I think it's a great idea," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Citizens Health Initiative, a private nonprofit that pushed for the expansion of state Medicaid programs. "Using the comptroller's facilities is wonderful."
Folkemer said the maximum income for Medicaid eligibility was increased for a Maryland family of four from $5,700 a year to a little less than $24,000 a year.
Franchot has delayed mailing letters to Howard County residents until this month at the request of county officials, who said they needed time to prepare to handle the anticipated response.
"We were getting deluged on our help line, from 50 to 100 calls a day," said Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, Howard's health officer. "We feared a gigantic backlog."
The help-line number is 410-313-HELP.
Working with the Howard-based Horizon Foundation, the county has obtained $60,000 in grants to hire up to six temporary workers to take phone calls.
The letters were to go out the first of the year, Beilenson said. A similar letter due to go home with the county's 48,000 public school students was delayed until the county can add the workers, Beilenson said.
"We thought it would be more sensible [to wait], and it was not incredibly time-sensitive," he said.
"Every week, we get 60 and 80 new applications," Beilenson said. "We're way above what we expected."
Franchot said several other counties have asked about his offer to identify families eligible for SCHIP and that he is eager to help.
"Talbot County, Charles, Caroline and Kent have inquired," Franchot said, adding that he "communicated specifically to the governor and suggested we send out a letter to all the jurisdictions other than Howard County."
Linda Kahler, the Talbot County Health Department's director of administration, said her county asked Franchot for help and was advised to wait until a statewide letter could go out.
larry.carson@baltsun.com
