government
CHIP reauthorization boosted kids' health coverage
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 13, 2012
Decreases in the rate of uninsured children since 2008, which occurred even as employer-sponsored coverage declined and the number of kids in poverty grew, were possible in part because of the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization of 2009. That's according to a report released by the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University to mark the third anniversary of the law's Feb. 4, 2009, enactment.
The national uninsured rate for children decreased to 8% in 2010, a drop of 1.3 percentage points and 1 million children since 2008, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Meanwhile, the childhood poverty rate reached 21.6% in 2010, an increase of 3.4 percentage points.
The CHIP reauthorization gave states several options and incentives to improve their Medicaid and CHIP coverage, according to the report. These include ending the five-year waiting period for legal immigrant children to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP, electronic identity verification through the Social Security Administration, $90 million in Medicaid and CHIP outreach grants, and more than $500 in performance bonuses for states that simplified their Medicaid enrollment procedures and achieved enrollment targets.
The report is available online (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/02/13/gvbf0213.htm.
