History of Public Health Insurance
The United States has a long history of providing subsidized health coverage to children and families. In 1965, the federal government ushered in the largest effort to cover children and families through the establishment of the Medicaid program. As part of the Social Security Act, Medicaid was originally designed to offer coverage to the poorest Americans—the elderly, people with disabilities, and families with children who received welfare. Major changes in the program have taken Medicaid far from its original welfare role, making it a critical avenue for health coverage for 60.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries. (Congressional Budget Office, March 2008).
In 1997, Congress built upon the Medicaid program through the establishment of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). SCHIP provides funding to states to cover uninsured children not eligible for Medicaid but whose families are unable to access or afford private coverage.
View an Animated Timeline on the Evolution of Publicly-Funded Health Coverage for Children and Families
See Additional Resources
- Medicaid at 40: This retrospective by the Kaiser Family Foundation provides a video and interviews about key developments in Medicaid.
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: The federal agency that administers Medicaid and SCHIP provides overviews of the two programs.
- Historical Overview of Children's Health Care Coverage: This article, released in the Packard Journal on the Future of Children, provides a look at children's health coverage in America up to 2003.