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This policy watch describes recent trends in children’s COVID-19 and routine vaccinations and explores strategies to increase vaccination rates among children as we head into the winter season.
Despite continued tight state budgets, a requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that states maintain eligibility in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs was central in preserving coverage during 2011. In addition, more than half of states (29) made improvements in their programs, often using technology to increase program efficiency and streamline enrollment. These and other findings appear in the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured report, "Performing Under Pressure: Annual Findings of…
The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) provides states new options to reach and enroll the estimated 5 million eligible but uninsured low-income children into Medicaid and CHIP. One key tool provided to states by the law is Express Lane Eligibility (ELE), which allows state Medicaid and CHIP agencies to borrow and rely on eligibility findings from other need-based programs, such as Head Start and the National School Lunch Program, to determine…
A 4-page issue brief that looks at trends in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage in California. The brief also includes public and private sector strategies for expanding employment-based coverage, and discusses how other states have implemented incremental coverage expansions using public programs and financial incentives, with emphasis on New York State. The brief lists the panel for a California Health Policy Roundtable held in Sacramento, California on May 4, 2001. Issue Brief
This article, authored by Diane Rowland, Alina Salganicoff, and Patricia Keenan of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, assesses Medicaid's contributions as a public financing program for health insurance coverage for the poor over the last three decades. It reviews Medicaid's impact on the low-income population and discusses the limitations of the program as a strategy for improving the health of low-income groups. While gaps in coverage and limitations in access persist between…
The health reform law relies on a large expansion of Medicaid to reach many low-income uninsured people, many of them adults. This fact sheet summarizes Medicaid beneficiaries' experience in obtaining access to care, a subject that is of keen interest in view of the planned expansion of the program. Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program have substantially increased coverage among low-income Americans, especially children. Research shows that Medicaid compares favorably with private coverage in…
With Congress poised to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) with a substantial increase in its federal funding, there are potentially new opportunities for reducing the estimated 9 million uninsured children nationwide. At the same time, the nation’s weak economy and growing unemployment is resulting in fewer families and children covered by employer-sponsored coverage. Against that backdrop, the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) released a package of new…
SCHIP Program Enrollment: December 2003 Update The latest survey of states on State Children's Health Insurance Program shows an enrollment decline in the second half of 2003--the first decline in the six-year history of the program. Report (.pdf)
Among NHPI people, there is significant variation in key factors that influence health, including health coverage, income, and homeownership, with Marshallese people faring the worst across all examined measures. Data gaps prevent the ability to fully identify and understand health disparities for NHPI people. Among available data, NHPI people fare worse than White people for the majority of measures.
This issue brief provides an update on the latest trends in kindergarten children's routine vaccination and exemption rates. Over three-quarters (39) of states had measles, mumps, rubella (MMR)vaccination rates below the “target” rate of 95% for the 2024-2025 school year.
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