Medicaid at the ten-year anniversary of SCHIP: looking back and moving forward

Abstract

The adoption of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997 spurred widespread efforts to simplify and revitalize Medicaid coverage for children. To an extent often not recognized, these Medicaid improvements were a key factor behind much of the progress that has been made in covering low-income children: These children's uninsurance rate dropped from 22.3 percent in 1997 to 14.9 percent in 2005, and more than 70 percent of those gains can be attributed to Medicaid. The program, however, faces a number of issues that will need to be addressed if the country is to continue to make progress.