Between 1997 and 2012, uninsured rates among low-income children fell from 25 percent to 13 percent despite recession conditions that separated many families from employer-sponsored coverage and left them with fewer resources to purchase coverage on their own. Our findings attribute this persistent decline to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, whose coverage rates among children increased from 41 percent to 63 percent over the same 15-year period.
Mathematica Policy Research and our partner, the Urban Institute, recently completed a congressionally mandated evaluation of CHIP that began in 2010, and our evaluation found CHIP to be successful in almost every area examined. The program expanded health insurance coverage to the population it is intended to serve, increased their access to needed health care, and reduced the financial burdens and stress on families associated with meeting children’s health care needs. These positive impacts and others were found for children and families in states with different CHIP program structures and features, across demographic and socioeconomic groups, and for children with different health needs.
