CHIP Outreach Gets More Kids Covered

The number of children eligible for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)  but not enrolled fell to 4.3 million in 2009 from 4.7 million the prior year, according to a report out today.  The drop is significant because it occurred even as the number of children eligible for the programs rose by 3 million as a result of the economic downturn.

Researchers and federal officials attributed part of the improvement in signing up uninsured kids to the March 2009 reauthorization of the CHIP program, which spurred states to increase eligibility in the program as well as provided new federal funding to increase outreach and streamline enrollment efforts.  “Without the CHIP reauthorization we would not have seen these gains, “ said Genevieve Kenney, a study author and a health economist with the Urban Institute. The report comes from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.