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September 20, 2007Report Details a Decade of the State Children's Health Insurance Program |
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New Report Details a Decade of the State Children's Health Insurance Program New findings from a study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., highlight states' progress in conducting outreach, averting substitution, improving access, and reducing the number of uninsured low-income children. A new issue brief summarizes Mathematica's comprehensive seven-year evaluation of SCHIP for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. SCHIP was enacted in 1997 when the number and rate of uninsured children were growing rapidly, especially among those just above the poverty threshold---too poor to purchase private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. SCHIP gave states considerable flexibility in designing programs to expand coverage for uninsured low-income children, by broadening Medicaid (M-SCHIP), creating a separate child health program (S-SCHIP), or combining the two approaches. During the early years, states focused on conducting outreach and enrolling children in SCHIP. SCHIP outreach and enrollment initiatives reversed declines in traditional Medicaid by reaching children who were eligible for Medicaid but uninsured. Estimates of substitution varied widely, ranging from less than 10 percent to 56 percent, depending on how substitution was defined and measured. Access to care improved significantly, although gaps remain for children with special health care needs and children of minority race/ethnicity. "During its first 10 years, SCHIP succeeded in covering more uninsured children and garnering strong public support," said Margo Rosenbach, a Mathematica vice president and author of the brief. Mathematica, one of the nation's leading independent research firms, conducts policy research and surveys for federal and state governments, as well as private clients. The employee-owned firm, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, education, welfare, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs in the United States.
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