Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/JustinYee

As reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) looms, we examine the program’s first decade and identify changes needed so that SCHIP can better serve its target population. We conclude that by many objective standards, SCHIP has been a success, but the challenge will be to maintain and build upon that success. Critical issues include the level and structure of federal funding; the continued problem of uninsurance among low-income children; the lack of information on quality, access, and costs; and whether SCHIP can serve as the foundation for addressing broader health care needs among low-income families.
Health Affairs, Volume 26, Number 2 (2007): 356-369.

Six out of ten low-income, uninsured children in Los Angeles County had difficulty accessing needed medical care in 2002/2003. Based on the Los Angeles County Health Survey, it appears that L.A.’s Children’s Health Initiative has the potential to improve access to health care services for these children if they enroll in public health programs. This analysis suggests that children enrolled in the Healthy Kids program would have fewer unmet health and dental needs and would be more likely to receive well-child and regular care.

Since 2003, the Children's Health Initiative of Greater Los Angeles has sought to reduce uninsurance rates among children in Los Angeles County. Using the 2002/2003 Los Angeles County Health Survey to examine the variation in health care access and use among children with public coverage prior to the Initiative, it appears that certain subgroups are experiencing problems. The Children's Health Initiative of Greater Los Angeles will not have as great an impact on improving children's health unless these barriers are addressed.

One in every ten children in Los Angeles County lacked health insurance coverage in 2002/2003. This brief uses L.A. County Health Survey data to assess how these children could be reached. Findings suggest that the Healthy Kids Program and L.A.'s Children's Health Initiative have the potential to substantially reduce uninsurance rates for L.A.'s children without eroding private coverage. A renewed push to enroll more children in public health programs could also reduce the uninsurance rate variations — especially with respect to citizenship status.

Using data drawn from the 2002 National Survey of America's Families, this study explores the ways in which levels of preventive dental care and unmet dental needs vary among subgroups of low-income children. More than half of low-income children without health insurance had no preventive dental care visits. Levels of unmet dental needs among low-income children who had private health insurance coverage but no dental benefits were similar to those among uninsured children. Children of parents whose mental health was rated as poor were twice as likely to have unmet dental needs as other children. (American Journal of Public Health, 95(8): 1360-1366)

Return to list of authors