Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child’s health, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems. The effects of lead on the nervous system can cause lower IQ, decreased ability to pay attention, and under performance in school.

This brief examines typical enrollment patterns for Medicaid and CHIP and uses 2018 Medicaid claims data to gain insight into the effects of the continuous enrollment requirements by eligibility group. Roughly 2% of Medicaid enrollees come on or leave the program in an average month, although there is variation across eligibility groups. A policy to require continuous enrollment would result in sharp reductions in monthly disenrollment rates and would also reduce monthly enrollment rates due to reductions in churn.

A summary of 10 of the major health coverage and financing provisions of the current Build Back Better Act, with discussion of the potential implications for people and the federal budget.

This fact sheet provides analysis of this recent enrollment decrease and discusses potential implications for coverage rates. It is based on Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Performance Indicator Project Data.

Following enrollment gains since the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and CHIP enrollment declined in 36 states, by 1.9 million nationwide, between December 2017 and July 2019.

President Trump has intensified national debate about immigration by implementing policies to enhance immigration enforcement and restrict legal immigration. Recent findings show that the climate surrounding these policies has significantly increased fear and uncertainty among immigrant families, broadly affecting families across different immigration statuses and locations. The effects extend to lawfully present immigrants, including lawful permanent residents or “green card” holders, and children in immigrant families, who are predominantly U.S.-born citizens. In particular, findings point to both short- and long-term negative consequences on the health and well-being of children in immigrant families.
Potential changes to public charge policies intended to reduce use of public programs by immigrant families, including their citizen children, could further increase strains on immigrant families and lead to losses in health coverage. To provide insight into the scope of potential impacts of continually evolving immigration policy on children, this data note provides nationwide and state-level estimates (Table 1) of citizen children living in immigrant families and the number currently covered by Medicaid/CHIP coverage.

This data note looks at national and state-by-state Medicaid and CHIP enrollment data through July 2022. After declines in enrollment from 2017 through 2019, preliminary data for July 2022 show that total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment grew to 90.0 million, an increase of 18.7 million from enrollment in February 2020 (26.3%), right before the pandemic and when enrollment began to steadily increase (Figure 1)

This data note discusses changes in the number of applications for Medicaid/CHIP coverage during the coronavirus pandemic. Although enrollment in Medicaid/CHIP has increased steadily by more than 6 million individuals (9%) from February to September 2020, the total number of Medicaid/CHIP applications has decreased by more than 150,000 (-6%) in the same time period. The decline in applications might on the surface suggest that fewer people are applying for coverage even in the face of large job and income losses, but data limitations – in particular, the fact that application statistics do not distinguish between new signups and renewals – make it difficult to draw any clear conclusions.

Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired on September 30, 2017. CHIP covers 8.9 million children in working families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford or access private coverage. (See here for state Medicaid and CHIP eligibility limits for children.) This fact…

This fact sheet reviews proposed changes in coverage for children in Medicaid and CHIP in President Trump’s 2018 budget proposal.