Medicaid/CHIP - Health Policy, Public Opinion & Research

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CHIP TIPS: New Opportunities For Covering Children Under Medicaid and CHIP
A new series of implementation briefs called “CHIP Tips” examines opportunities for covering children following the reauthorization and expansion of CHIP in February 2009. The series is jointly produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and the Center for Children and Families at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute.

Medicaid as a Platform for Broader Health Reform
This package of resources examines policy opportunities for expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income and high-need people as a foundation for broader health reform. Topics examined include the cost and coverage impacts of expanding Medicaid and options for covering low-income adults.

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Money Follows the Person: An Early Implementation Snapshot -- June 2009

This issue brief examines the early successes and challenges of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration, a Medicaid initiative enacted into law in 2006 that gives states enhanced federal support to balance their Medicaid long-term care programs by providing more services in the community and fewer in institutional settings.

Explaining Health Care Reform: What is Medicaid? -- June 2009
This brief explains the role of Medicaid in the health care system and addresses some key questions and issues related to Medicaid that could emerge in the context of current health reform discussions.

Medicare Prescription Drug Plans in 2009 and Key Changes Since 2006: Summary of Findings -- June 2009
This report summarizes findings from a series of Medicare Part D 2009 Data Spotlights documenting changes in drug coverage and costs since 2006 and finds, in many ways, beneficiaries over time are paying more for less generous benefits.

CHIP TIPS: CHIP Financing Structure -- June 2009

This brief, the fourth in a series, examines important changes to CHIP's financing structure under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009.

Low-Income Adults Under Age 65 - Many are Poor, Sick, and Uninsured -- June 2009

This policy brief examines the characteristics and insurance coverage of low-income adults under age 65, a group numbering more than 50 million people. They are more likely to be in poor health than other Americans and are the least likely to have health insurance.

Examing the Role of Private Long-Term Care Insurance in the Financing of Long-Term Care -- June 2009
This policy brief and related congressional testimony examine the fundamentals of private long-term care insurance, including how consumers buy policies, how much policies cost and how they work, and what regulations exist to protect consumers. They also discuss the challenges of possibly enlarging the role of private long-term care insurance in financing long-term care.

Closing the Long-Term Care Funding Gap: The Challenge of Private Long-Term Care Insurance -- June 2009

This policy brief examines the fundamentals of private long-term care insurance, including how consumers buy policies, how much policies cost and how they work, and what regulations exist to protect consumers. It also discuss the challenges of possibly enlarging the role of private long-term care insurance in financing long-term care

Filling In The Long-Term Care Gaps -- June 2009

At a June 3 hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Diane Rowland, Executive Vice President of the Kaiser Family Foundation and Executive Director on the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, testified on the key challenges to providing a larger role for private long-term care insurance in financing long-term care for the elderly and people with disabilities.

States Moving Towards Comprehensive Health Care Reform -- May 2009

With the problem of the uninsured continuing to grow, states have taken the lead in developing proposals to reform of their health care systems with the goal of significantly increasing the number of people with health coverage. An interactive map and related summaries of plans track which states have enacted or are planning comprehensive initiatives to cover their uninsured population.

New Kaiser Resources Examine Medicaid as a Platform for Health Reform -- May 2009

These related research papers, released at a public briefing, examine the policy opportunities for expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income and high-need people in ways that would enable the program to serve as a platform for larger national health reform efforts.

This brief explains the role of Medicaid in the health care system and addresses some key questions and issues related to Medicaid that could emerge in the context of current health reform discussions.

This report summarizes findings from a series of Medicare Part D 2009 Data Spotlights documenting changes in drug coverage and costs since 2006 and finds, in many ways, beneficiaries over time are paying more for less generous benefits.

This brief, the fourth in a series, examines important changes to CHIP's financing structure under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009.

This policy brief and related congressional testimony examine the fundamentals of private long-term care insurance, including how consumers buy policies, how much policies cost and how they work, and what regulations exist to protect consumers. They also discuss the challenges of possibly enlarging the role of private long-term care insurance in financing long-term care.

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Medicaid/CHIP

Medicaid is the nation's public health insurance program for low-income Americans, financing health and long term care services for more than 55 million individuals. The program provides access to affordable and comprehensive health care for children and adults in low-income working families and for the elderly and disabled who often rely on the program to fill in critical gaps in their Medicare coverage. Although three quarters of Medicaid's enrollees are adults or children, the elderly and disabled account for 70% of the program's expenditures. Financed and operated jointly by the states and federal government, Medicaid accounts for roughly one sixth of the nation’s health care spending and almost half of all spending on long term care. As the largest source of federal support to the states, Medicaid is also a major engine in state economies, supporting millions of jobs across the country. Its guarantee of open-ended federal financing that matches state spending enables states to respond to losses of private health insurance attributable to unemployment and rising health insurance premiums, increases in health care costs, emergencies and disasters, and an aging society.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was enacted in 1997 to provide a capped amount of federal matching funds to states for coverage of children and some parents with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, but for whom private health insurance was either unavailable or unaffordable. Covering roughly four million children, CHIP has played an important role in reducing the number of uninsured children in America.

This section provides data and information on the Medicaid and CHIP programs with a focus on the populations they serve. Analyses of proposals to restructure these programs, data from surveys, studies of the impact of recent programmatic changes on beneficiaries, and basic information on how the programs operate and are administered can all be found here. These materials can help to inform discussions of reform proposals and efforts to improve and maintain health coverage and financing for the low-income disabled and elderly populations, families, and children who are left out of our country’s fragmented, employer-based health care system.

The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured is the main source for the Foundation's work related to the Medicaid and CHIP programs. Begun in 1991, the Commission is the largest operating program of Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and has brought increased analysis and attention to health coverage issues facing the low-income population for over a decade. Through its reports and briefings, the Commission continues to provide up-to-date information on Medicaid and CHIP and assesses options for reform.