Children’s Health Coverage: Medicaid, CHIP, and Next Steps

Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) play a crucial role in the U.S. health insurance system by providing coverage for more than one in four children. The number of children in CHIP is at an all-time high, having grown 15 percent over the past year alone. About half of Medicaid’s enrollees are children. And yet, more than 8 million children remain uninsured today, 70 percent of whom are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.

What factors influence children’s coverage? What are the trends in private sector coverage? How well are the enrollment simplification and outreach tools that are included in this year’s CHIP reauthorization helping to reach those children who are eligible but unenrolled? How much does a child’s coverage depend on where he or she lives? How have states’ budget shortfalls affected children’s coverage? What is being proposed in the House and Senate reform bills that could affect children’s coverage in the future?

To discuss these questions and others, the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored a November 13 briefing. Panelists were: Jocelyn Guyer of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University Health Policy Institute; Nate Checketts, director of Utah’s CHIP program; and Stan Dorn of the Urban Institute. Ed Howardof the Alliance moderated.

Transcript

Full Transcript (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Speaker Presentations

Jocelyn Guyer Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Nate Checketts Presentation (PowerPoint)
Stan Dorn Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Event Details

Agenda (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Speaker Biographies (Adobe Acrobat PDF)