This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Since its start in 1997, the child uninsured rate in the US has dropped nearly 10 percentage points.
Dr. Mary Moody, board president of the American Academy of Pediatrics Missouri chapter and a St. Louis pediatrician, called the program “a blessing” for so many families, especially those who make enough not to qualify for Medicaid, but who do not have employer-sponsored coverage or struggle to afford other insurance.
“These children are benefiting from routine checkups and chronic disease management, like asthma follow-ups and those sorts of things,” Moody pointed out. “Allowing that gap to be filled by the CHIP program is really keeping kids healthy and strong.”
Missouri just last year started to implement Medicaid expansionthough there have been legislative efforts to repeal it and withhold funds.
Moody noted while CHIP has remained a stable program for families, there is still room to grow, such as implementing 12-month continuous coverage for kids, and covering Missouri children regardless of their immigration status.
A COVID relief bill from early in the pandemic requires continuous coverage for all kids throughout the Public Health Emergency, which is set to expire Oct. 13. Moody stressed continuous coverage has shown to be cost-effective for the state, as well as beneficial for children and families.
“We’ve seen that these kids have more consistent care,” Moody observed. “There’s less fragmentation, that kids and their parents don’t show up at the doctor’s office and realize their health insurance is inactive for whatever reason.”
In Missouri, the upper income limit for a family of three to have their kids be eligible for CHIP is a little more than $70,000 a year.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, thinks Congress should permanently reauthorize CHIP, to build on the progress it has made.
“Children are facing a lot of challenges these days,” Alker emphasized. “Making sure they have access to affordable, accessible health care is critical so that we can get our children back on track.”
Disclosure: The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families contributes to our fund for reporting on Children’s Issues, and Health Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
get more stories like this via email
As a program that’s improved health insurance access for kids celebrates its silver anniversarythere are calls to ensure it remains strong for the future.
Friday is the 25th anniversary of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, created by Congress to cover millions of kids who might not otherwise have health-care coverage.
Instead of creating a standalone program, said Loren Anthes, a public-policy fellow with the Center for Community SolutionsOhio leverages CHIP dollars to extend Medicaid eligibility.
“It’s a good deal, and you get a high return on that investment, from a policy perspective,” he said. “There’s all these positive benefits in terms of economic mobility, in terms of addressing things like educational outcomes or family stability.”
Since CHIP began, the rate of uninsured kids in the United States has dropped nearly 10 percentage points. In June, 1.3 million Ohio children were enrolled in Medicaidincluding 230,000 through CHIP.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Familiessaid she thinks Congress should permanently reauthorize CHIP, to build on the progress that has been made.
“A few times over the 25 years, CHIP has become a little bit of a political football, and we’ve seen some instances where we’ve had lapses in the program,” she said. “So, we know that CHIP works, and having Congress move to make it permanent would be great.”
During the federal public health emergency, states received more funding for Medicaid and were not allowed to drop people from Medicaid coverage. Anthes said because of that, overall enrollment increased by nearly 550,000 between March 2020 and March 2022.
“If there’s anything that policymakers should be paying attention to, it’s the ways in which we’re ensuring that whole families can maintain their coverage as we’re going through uncertain economic times,” he said. “Because if we don’t, there’s a number of ripple effects that can happen, and the ones who are going to be paying for it are Ohio’s children.”
The public-health emergency is set to expire Oct. 13, but it could be extended, as it has been several other times.
Disclosure: Georgetown University Center for Children & Families contributes to our fund for reporting on Children’s Issues, Health Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
get more stories like this via email
The Children’s Health Insurance Program, covering low-income kids across the country, turns 25 in August, but Pennsylvania has had its own “CHIP” even longer – and it was used as a model for the federal program.
CHIP was launched in Pennsylvania five years earlier than the national program. CHIP allows states to cover children when parents can’t afford private health insurance.
Today, said Antoinette Kraus, executive director of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Health Access Networkabout 136,000 children in the Commonwealth are enrolled in CHIP, which is a slight decrease from previous years.
“We think that’s because right now, we’re still under a Public Health Emergency,” she said, “so a lot of kids are enrolled in Medicaid with their families and they can’t be cut off from coverage during this period. So , we expect when the public health emergency ends, a lot of kids will transition from Medicaid to CHIP.”
That’s because in Pennsylvania, CHIP can cover any uninsured child who is not eligible for the state Medical Assistance or Medicaid program. The current end date for the Public Health Emergency is Oct. 13, although there’s a chance it could be extended.
The Pennsylvania Health Access Network helps families find health services that fit their budget. Kraus said one persistent barrier they see is that parents don’t always know the income eligibility requirements for CHIP and assume they can’t afford it.
“But really,” she said, “for parents with very low incomes – if you’re making between $21,000 and $28,000, and you have a kid under five, or you’re making between $18,000 or $28,000 and your kid is between six and 18 – CHIP is free for them.”
Kraus added that Pennsylvania is seeing one of the lowest rates of uninsured residents in its history, both for adults and children. She credited a combination of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and CHIP. However, a report from 2019 showed that 4.6% of children in the state still were uninsured.
get more stories like this via email
Connecticut ranks among the top 10 states in offering access to mental health services for its youth population, according to the latest report from Mental Health America, but advocates said more could be done.
The Children’s Hospital Association said in 2020, early in the pandemic, there was a 24% increase in mental health emergency department visits for kids ages 5-11.
Bob Duncan, chief operating officer for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and Health System, said strengthening Medicaid’s mental health investment is needed, and the nation needs more providers in the pediatric mental health system.
“We don’t have enough psychologists and psychiatrists to meet the demand needed,” Duncan observed. “Currently, there are 10 child psychiatrists per 100,000 kids. It is estimated that we need 47 per 100,000 kids.”
He shared his findings as part of a coalition which met this month with members of Congress and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. However, Duncan thinks the divisive political landscape could stand in the way of facing these challenges promptly and agreeing on dollar amounts for funding improvements to the system.
Duncan wants to expand telehealth services as a way to reach kids in different parts of the state. In the meantime, he added there are ways for adults to help the children in their lives.
He recommended parents develop a relationship with their pediatrician and seek out a psychologist, if necessary. And he pointed out parents’ first and most important step has been available all along: to talk with their children.
“Families have a chance to take time and spend time at home with their kids, and can see some of the things that their kids may have been struggling with that — in a typical environment, when the kids were in school — they wouldn’t ‘t have seen,” Duncan noted. “Taking time and creating an atmosphere where kids can talk to their parents, to express what they’re feeling.”
He remains hopeful the overall picture for kids’ mental health will improve over time, but he acknowledged the stigma persists, and keeps people of all ages from talking openly about mental health.
get more stories like this via email
