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Title: Medicaid/CHIP Participation Among Children and Parents

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: Despite the economic downturn, most states have maintained and even improved childrens eligibility for Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by expanding eligibility to additional groups of children, improving enrollment and retention systems, and implementing new policy options available under the 2009 Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA). Income eligibility for children is relatively high: the median threshold is now 250 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), which is much higher than it is for parents. Using the 20082010 American Community Survey (ACS), this analysis suggests that both eligibility and participation increased for children over this time period, with participation reaching nearly 86 percent nationally in 2010 and increasing among most subgroups and states. As a result, the number of eligible uninsured children declined, reaching 4.4 million in 2010. In contrast, participation rates were lower for parents, both nationally and in every state, though states that had relatively higher/lower participation rates among children were more likely to also have relatively higher/lower participation rates among parents. This analysis suggests that CHIPRA may have contributed to increased take-up of Medicaid/CHIP among children, but that additional efforts will be needed, particularly among parents, to achieve high levels of Medicaid enrollment under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

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Authors: Lynch, Victoria; Haley, Jennifer; Anderson, Nathaniel; Huntress, Michael; Kenney, Genevieve M.

Publisher: Urban Institute

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Health, Poverty and Welfare

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