Eligibility & Enrollment

Advancing Health Equity for Children and Adults with a Critical Tool: Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Continuous Coverage

Key Takeaways: Latino children disproportionately receive their health coverage through Medicaid or CHIP. Together, these programs provide coverage for more than one-third (37.6 percent) of all children, but more than half (52.1 percent) of Latino children. Adopting Medicaid and CHIP policies that remove barriers to participation and reduce gaps in coverage would narrow inequities in […]

Kelly Whitener, Matthew Snider October 20, 2021

Medicaid Continuous Coverage Extended with Renewal of the PHE

The Biden administration has extended the public health emergency (PHE) for 90 days, from October 18, 2021 through January 16, 2022. What does this mean for Medicaid? First, the maintenance of effort provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act remain in effect until January 31, 2022 (the end of the month after the PHE […]

Tricia Brooks

October 18, 2021

Why is Medicaid/CHIP Continuous Eligibility So Important for Kids?

As readers of SayAhhh! know, the number of uninsured kids was going down for many years, but during the Trump administration starting going back up – rising to 5.7 percent child uninsured rate in 2019. While children are insured at higher rates than non-elderly adults, they still lag considerably behind seniors – who with Medicare […]

Joan Alker, Aubrianna Osorio October 8, 2021

Loss of Medicaid After the PHE Will Likely Exceed 15 Million Estimated by Urban

The Urban Institute recently released a new report projecting that Medicaid and CHIP will have provided access to health care (and peace of mind) for an additional 17 million children and adults by the end of 2021. The increase is largely due to the COVID-related requirement that states keep Medicaid enrollees continuously covered during the […]

Tricia Brooks

September 20, 2021

New! Tips for Advocates on Preparing for Unwinding of the PHE Continuous Eligibility Provision

[Editor’s Note: A new version of our Tips and Best Practices for Unwinding the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Protection can be found here.] Although the end of the public health emergency (PHE) remains a moving target, it’s not too early to start planning for phasing out the continuous eligibility maintenance of effort provision and the eventual […]

Tricia Brooks

August 31, 2021

Participation of Eligible, Uninsured Children in Medicaid and CHIP Declined Again in 2019

[Editor’s Note: You can find state level Medicaid/CHIP participation rates on CCF’s State Data Hub.] Since the American Community Survey (ACS) was first released in 2008, the Urban Institute has estimated the share of uninsured children who are eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. Several weeks ago, Urban released its latest analysis based […]

Tricia Brooks

August 18, 2021