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Research & Reports

  • Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost Sharing Policies: Findings from a 50-State Survey

    This annual 50-state survey provides data on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility, enrollment, renewal and cost sharing policies and identifies changes in these policies that occurred in the past year.  This report documents the role Medicaid and CHIP play for low-income children and families and the evolution of these programs under the…

  • Latino Children’s Coverage Reaches Historic High, But Too Many Remain Uninsured

    Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau examining health insurance coverage rates in 2015 found that, during the 2013-2015 period, the U.S. experienced the largest two-year decline in uninsurance rates for all children on record. The uninsurance rate for all children declined from 7.1 percent in 2013 to 4.8 percent in 2015. During the…

  • Fact Sheet: Medicaid’s Role for Young Children

    Today, more than 45 million children have coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For the nation’s youngest children, Medicaid and CHIP play an outsized role, covering 45 percent of children under the age of six, compared to 35 percent of children between the ages of six and 18.

  • Healthy Parents and Caregivers are Essential to Children’s Healthy Development

    Since 2014, millions of parents and other adults have been able to access health insurance for the first time either through the Medicaid expansion (10 million) or the new marketplaces (11.5 million) created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The rate of uninsured adults under age 65 declined significantly in 2014, the first year of…

  • How Does California Perform on the Quality of Health Care for Children Enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP?

    Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released an “Annual Report on the Quality of Care for Children in Medicaid and CHIP.” The report includes data submitted by the states on the Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures (child core set) and summarizes the results of the External…

  • Children’s Health Coverage Rate Now at Historic High of 95 Percent

    Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau examining health insurance coverage rates in 2015 find that, for the period 2013-2015, children’s uninsured levels experienced the largest two year decline on record; this decline coincided with the implementation of most of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. saw the rate of uninsured…

  • Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Ensuring Accountability and Transparency

    In May 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) completed its modernization of the regulations governing managed care in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). One of CMS’ primary goals in this regulatory overhaul is to promote transparency, enabling policy makers, beneficiaries, providers, and other stakeholders to better understand and monitor…

  • Fulfilling the Promise of Children’s Dental Coverage

    By Colin Reusch, Senior Policy Analyst with the Children’s Dental Health Project, and Joan Alker, Executive Director of the Center for Children and Families Introduction Fulfilling the Promise of Children’s Dental Coverage is the second brief in our Future of Children’s Health Coverage series. The brief, coauthored by Colin Reusch with the Children’s Dental Health Project,…

  • Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Assuring Quality

    While the rules governing Medicaid/CHIP managed care remained unchanged for more than a decade, significant advances have been made in assessing quality, access, and timeliness of care in health coverage programs. During this time, there has been a growing recognition of the need to ensure that the care delivered through capitated managed care arrangements is…

  • Comments on Proposed Changes to the Medicaid Eligibility Quality Control and Payment Error Rate Measurement Programs

    Attached are the comments we submitted to CMS on the Medicaid Eligibility Quality Control and Payment Error Rate Measurement Programs rule.

  • The Future of Children’s Health Coverage

    (Updated August 2021) The Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program have made historic progress in reducing the child uninsured rate. Yet some families continue to have difficulty affording coverage and getting their children the care they need. In June of 2016, the Center for Children and Families launched a series of…

  • Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Network Adequacy and Access to Services

    Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) have teamed up to bring advocates for children and low-income families critical information about the recently finalized Medicaid and CHIP managed care regulations. This paper is the fourth in the series, and it describes how the new rules assure network…

  • Medicaid Expansion Promotes Children’s Development and Family Success by Treating Maternal Depression

    This paper examines one important reason why access to Medicaid for poor adults is crucial for children’s healthy development. Other research has documented the reasons why Medicaid coverage matters so much for uninsured adults, both parents and non-parents: It reduces the rate of uninsurance, allows them to get treatment for medical and mental health problems, and stabilizes family finances.…

  • Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Enhancing the Beneficiary Experience

    As managed care and particularly mandatory managed care programs have become the predominant model for delivering care in Medicaid, there has been a growing recognition of the need to provide potential enrollees with accurate and timely information about their managed care options, to enable and encourage an active choice of plans, and to ensure that…

  • Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations: Improving Consumer Information

    Over the past decade or so as managed care has become the predominant delivery system in Medicaid and CHIP, there has been a growing recognition of the need for current, accurate, and thorough consumer information to aid potential managed care enrollees in making an informed plan selection and in understanding how to maximize their benefits…

  • Looking at the New Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations Through a Children’s Lens

    In May 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized sweeping regulatory changes for managed care in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Almost nine of every 10 children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP receive health care through a managed care arrangement. This paper examines the impact of Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care…

  • Fact Sheet: Medicaid’s Role for Children

    Medicaid is an essential source of health coverage for the nation’s children. The program provides health coverage to children and parents in low-income families who lack access to affordable private health insurance, as well as to children with special health care needs.

  • How Is Florida’s Medicaid Managed Care Working for Children?

    How is Florida’s Medicaid managed care working for children? To answer this question, we looked at existing data sources and also conducted a survey of pediatricians in Florida. Our results suggest there is considerable room for improvement in Medicaid managed care for Florida’s children.

  • Beyond the Reduction in Uncompensated Care: Medicaid Expansion Is Having a Positive Impact on Safety Net Hospitals and Clinics

    More than two years after the onset of expanded Medicaid coverage, significant differences are emerging between states that opted to expand Medicaid and those that did not. This report contains the findings of telephone interviews with eleven leaders of hospital systems and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in seven states. Three of the states where we conducted interviews…

  • The Future of Children’s Health Coverage: Children in the Marketplace

    Summary This paper addresses changes needed to improve the ability of Marketplace coverage to meet children’s needs. As the paper notes, relatively few children (approximately one million) receive their coverage through the Marketplace; most in public coverage are served through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. As a new source of coverage, and one…