Review of the Ability of Noncustodial Parents to Contribute Toward the Medical Costs of Title IV-D Children in Michigan Under the State Children Health Insurance Program

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This final report points out that Michigan has an opportunity to increase enrollment in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and have noncustodial parents pay a portion of the associated costs.  Based on a statistical sample, we estimated that 96,948 Title IV-D children would have been eligible to receive SCHIP benefits during the period May 1, 2001 through April 30, 2002.  The noncustodial parents of 22,722 of these children could have contributed $9.8 million toward the $22.5 million in costs that would have been incurred if the children had been enrolled.  For those children already enrolled, we determined that 2,176 received SCHIP managed care benefits and 413 of these children had noncustodial parents who could have contributed $168,345 toward the $289,188 in SCHIP premiums paid on behalf of their children.  We recommended that Michigan take steps to recover SCHIP premiums from noncustodial parents with medical support orders and the ability to pay for their dependent children.