Skip to main content
Consensus Study Report

VIEW LARGER COVER

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was established by Congress to provide health insurance to uninsured children whose family income was too high for Medicaid coverage but too low to allow the family to obtain private health insurance coverage. The enabling legislation for SCHIP, included in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, made available to states (and the District of Columbia) almost $40 billion over a 10-year period for this program. Like Medicaid, SCHIP is a joint federal-state program, with funding from both sources, but it is implemented by the states. Thus, there are SCHIP programs in all of the states and the District of Columbia.

The National Research Council, through the Committee on National Statistics, was asked to explore some of the ways in which data analysis could be used to promote achievement of the SCHIP goal of expanding health insurance coverage for uninsured children from low-income families. To inform its work, the panel for this project held a workshop to bring together state SCHIP officials and researchers to share findings and methods that would inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of SCHIP at the state and national levels. In keeping with this charge, this report is limited to discussions at the workshop. It does not attempt to provide a summary of all the state programs nor a comprehensive review of the literature.

Data Needs for the State Children's Health Insurance Program concludes that data are insufficient in the individual states to provide a clear picture of the impact of SCHIP on the number of children who are eligible for the program, the rate at which eligible children are enrolled in the program, and the rate at which they are retained in the program once enrolled. This situation is due, in part, to the fact that sample sizes in national surveys are too small to provide detailed data for individual states. In addition, the great amount of movement of children among health insurance categories—Medicaid, SCHIP, private insurance, or no insurance at all—makes it difficult for states to count the number of children in specific categories at a particular point in time.

The panel specifies a number of practices that could be implemented to improve the overall functioning of SCHIP and the ability of policy makers to evaluate the program. Foremost among these are: (1) developing more uniform ways of estimating eligibility and health insurance coverage among the states; (2) sharing among the states effective methods for outreach; (3) taking qualitative information into account, in addition to quantitative information, in assessing variation among states in enrollment and disenrollment; and (4) implementing longitudinal studies to track the movement of children among the various insurance statuses.

RESOURCES AT A GLANCE

Suggested Citation

National Research Council. 2002. Data Needs for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10416.

Import this citation to:

Publication Info

72 pages |  6 x 9 | 

ISBNs: 
  • Paperback:  978-0-309-08463-5
  • Ebook:  978-0-309-18294-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/10416

What is skim?

The Chapter Skim search tool presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter. You may select key terms to highlight them within pages of each chapter.

Copyright Information

The National Academies Press (NAP) has partnered with Copyright Clearance Center's Marketplace service to offer you a variety of options for reusing NAP content. Through Marketplace, you may request permission to reprint NAP content in another publication, course pack, secure website, or other media. Marketplace allows you to instantly obtain permission, pay related fees, and print a license directly from the NAP website. The complete terms and conditions of your reuse license can be found in the license agreement that will be made available to you during the online order process. To request permission through Marketplace you are required to create an account by filling out a simple online form. The following list describes license reuses offered by the NAP through Marketplace:

  • Republish text, tables, figures, or images in print
  • Post on a secure Intranet/Extranet website
  • Use in a PowerPoint Presentation
  • Distribute via CD-ROM
  • Photocopy

Click here to obtain permission for the above reuses. If you have questions or comments concerning the Marketplace service, please contact:

Marketplace Support
International +1.978.646.2600
US Toll Free +1.855.239.3415
E-mail: support@copyright.com
marketplace.copyright.com

To request permission to distribute a PDF, please contact our Customer Service Department at customer_service@nap.edu.

loading iconLoading stats for Data Needs for the State Children's Health Insurance Program...