Care and Coverage of the Nation’s Children: A Resource Page

Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are serving as an important safety-net for children during the current recession. These programs have contributed to a decrease in the uninsured rate for children, but many eligible children remain uninsured despite the availability of Medicaid and CHIP coverage today. Provisions to strengthen coverage for children are included in both the 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Administration has made covering all eligible children a key priority through its Connecting Kids to Coverage initiative. This renewed effort to reach eligible but uninsured children will help prevent children from needlessly forgoing medical care.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has several resources that explain children’s health care coverage and can serve as helpful reference guides in understanding the crucial role that public coverage plays for this population. These materials include state level data on children’s coverage and background on Medicaid and CHIP, which together provide coverage for almost one-third of all children.

• Holding Steady, Looking Ahead: Annual Findings Of A 50-State Survey Of Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, And Cost Sharing Practices in Medicaid and CHIP, 2010-2011
  The annual 50-state survey of Medicaid and CHIP eligibility rules, enrollment and renewal procedures and cost sharing practices, conducted by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured with the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, found that, in 2010, coverage in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program remained strong with some improvements, particularly for low-income children. However, eligibility for their parents and other low-income adults continued to lag behind. The survey also found that states are adopting technology to modernize their programs, but still have a significant amount of work ahead as they begin to prepare for health reform.
• Fact Sheets: Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009
  This fact sheet provides an overview of provisions of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA), which was signed into law in February 2009. The Act extends and expands the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that was enacted with bipartisan support as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA). Another fact sheet provides an overview of new coverage options, enrollment tools and incentives provided by the law and state adoption of those options to date.
• Children’s State Fact Sheets
  This simple tool allows you to view Children’s Health fact sheets containing the latest data from statehealthfacts.org, comparing your state to the United States or to any other state.
• Estimated State by State Participation Rates for Children in Medicaid and CHIP
  statehealthfacts.org now offers children’s Medicaid and CHIP participation rates by state, presenting new estimates prepared by the Urban Institute for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and published in the journal Health Affairs.
• CHIP Tips: Series Focuses On New Opportunities For Covering Children Under Medicaid and CHIP
  This series of implementation briefs called “CHIP Tips” examines new opportunities for covering children following the reauthorization and expansion of CHIP in February 2009. Together Medicaid and CHIP provide coverage for more than one in four children in the U.S., yet many others remain eligible but uninsured.
• Health Coverage of Children: The Role of Medicaid and CHIP
  This fact sheet summarizes the latest coverage data on the nation’s children and examines the key role played by two public health coverage programs, Medicaid and CHIP.
• CHIP Enrollment: June 2009 Data Snapshot (updated for 2011)
  This report provides the latest data on Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollment and policy trends nationally and across the states through June 2009.

• Optimizing Medicaid Enrollment: Spotlight on Technology
  This series examines how selected states are using technology in innovative ways to streamline and simplify Medicaid enrollment.

• Oral Health Coverage and Care For Low-Income Children: The Role of Medicaid and CHIP
  This policy brief provides an overview of oral health care access and coverage for low-income children.