Health Reform

Key Medicaid, CHIP, and Low-Income Provisions in the House Tri-Committee Health Reform Bill
On July 14, 2009, three US House Committees introduced a revised health reform bill, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. According to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, under the bill's provisions, by 2015, 94 percent of the non-elderly population would have health insurance. View the report for a summary with more on the bill's specifics.

Children's Health Care Priorities in Health Reform
This one page fact sheet urges policy makers to "fix what's broken and build on what works" when it comes to children and health reform. Specific aspects of health reform addressed are access to coverage and care, medical homes, and affordability

 Health Care Reform for Children with Public Coverage: How Can Policy Makers Maximize Gains and Prevent Harm?.
The June 2009 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report features timely analysis on immediate policy issues surrounding children enrolled in Medicaid, CHIP, and other public health insurance programs and health reform.

The Last Piece of the Puzzle: Providing High-Quality, Affordable Health Coverage to All Children Through National Health Reform
This May 2009 report details several recommendations regarding what children need from national health reform, from building affordable coverage pathways for all of America's children to ensuring children get the care they need.

Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

More Funding for CHIP, Different Rules: How Does CHIPRA Change CHIP Funding
This report summarizes the federal financing rules for CHIP, as well as the improvements to the financing system that will help ensure that states have the funding they need to get more children covered. (June 2009)

The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA)
The Kaiser Family Foundation examines four key provisions in the new law: investing in outreach, increasing access for legal immigrant children and pregnant women, increased funding for interpretation and translation services, and establishing new quality of care measures. It also includes action steps for advocates. (2009)

Covering More Children, Rewarding Success: State Performance Bonuses
This brief discusses the new system of performance bonuses created by CHIPRA 2009. These bonuses are designed to reqard states for enrolling more uninsured low-income children in Medicaid. (April 2009)

Benefits

EPSDT Fact Sheet
Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment service (EPSDT) is a comprehensive set of benefits availible to children and youth under age 21 who are enrolled in Medicaid. This recent facts heet from the National Health Law Program provides background on EPSDT and provides recent information on how the program addresses screening and treatment services, as well as strategies states can take to outreach to children and families. View the fact sheet here.

Medicaid Program at a Glance
Medicaid is the nation's principle safety-net health insurance program, covering health and long-term care services for 59 million low-income Americans, including children and parents as well as people with disabilities and seniors. Most children and parents covered by Medicaid are from working families. Without Medicaid, the vast majority of its enrollees would be uninsured. This November 2008 factsheet from the Kaiser Family Foundation gives the basics on the Medicaid program and details the important role it plays in the American health insurance system.

State Health Access Profile Chartbook
The July 2008 Chartbook, released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, offers detailed health insurance data specific to states. The easy-to-use data sheets offer side-by-side comparison between up to three states.  Users can view broad sets of health access data for the fifty states and the District of Colombia. Click here to view the Rhode Island data set.

Coverage Strategies

Five Basic Facts on the Uninsured
This factsheet uses Census data released in September 2009 to provide basic facts on why so many Americans lack health coverage and how being uninsured affects their health and financial security. View Five Basic Facts on the Uninsured.

Weathering the Storm
In 2009, Twenty-three states improved or expanded children's coverage programs this year despite a tough economic climate, according to a report from the Center on Children and Families at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. The report finds that a majority of states have taken advantage of the passage of CHIPRA and other federal support to strengthen or maintain their efforts to cover all children.Click here to access the September 2009 report.

Approaches to Covering The Uninsured
The December 2008 guide from Kaiser Foundation explains the key strategies for expanding coverage to America's 45 million uninsured people and explains how different policy options can be combined to form comprehensive reform proposals. It organizes the various proposals under four overall approaches: strengthening current coverage arrangements, improving affordability of coverage, improving the availibility of coverage and the tax treatment and financing of health insurance. View the guide here.

Keeping the Promise to Children and Families in Tough Economic Times
This Novemeber 2008 report and executive summary from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute Center for Children and Families gives a detailed overview of the the risks posed to children's health coverage as a result of the economic downturn the country is facing. Examples of legislative strategies strengthen the saftey net for families as unemployment rises and foreclosures threaten family livelihood are examined.

Almost There: Covering the Remaining Uninsured Children in Rhode Island
The October 2008 report, written by New England Alliance for Children's Health, a project of Community Catalyst in partnership with Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, provides a comprehensive look at who Rhode Island's 17,000 uninsured children are, and discusses strategies for bolstering and strengthening employer sponsored coverage as well as RIte Care and RIte Share. The report concludes with recommendations to "finish the job" for our uninsured children. View full text of the report, and the executive summary.

Family Coverage: Covering Parents Along with Their Children
This brief comes from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute.While the rate of uninsured children has fallen in the past decade, the precentage of uninsured parents has remains significantly higher than for their children. This brief explores ways in which states can both cover more parents and simplify the enrollment and renewal process. View the September 2008 report.

Knowledge Path: Child and Adolescent Health Insurance and Access to Care
Knowledge Path is an electronic guide to a selection of recent, high-quality resources about child and adolescent health insurance and access to care with an emphasis on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The Knowledge Path, produced by the MCH Library, includes a section on child and adolescent health coverage campaigns. A separate section lists resources for families.

No Shelter from the Storm: America's Uninsured Children
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the growing number of Americans who lack health insurance. Unfortunately, less attention has been paid to a startling and often-overlooked fact: One out of every five uninsured Americans is a child. This report takes a closer look at uninsured children—who they are and what kinds of services they miss out on as a result of being uninsured. Download the full report.