Through Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the United States has continued to make great progress in increasing health coverage for the nation’s children, but many eligible children remain uninsured, two researchers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) report in a Health Affairs web exclusive published yesterday.
Eligibility for Medicaid and SCHIP stayed relatively constant between 2001 and 2005, yet increased enrollment caused the number of children with public coverage to increase from 16.2 million in 2001 to 21.0 million in 2005. The number of children with private coverage declined from 13.5 million to 11.4 million over the same period. Because public coverage increased faster than private coverage fell, the percentage of children who were uninsured declined. As of 2003, the uninsurance rate among children dropped for the first time below levels last seen in the 1970s, and by 2005 the uninsurance rate stood at 11.7 percent.
The researchers hail the success of Medicaid and SCHIP in reducing uninsurance among children, but they caution that “we must not lose sight of the enrollment (and retention) shortfalls demonstrated by the number of eligible but uninsured children.” Read the abstract.
