1. Covering Kids In the News!
Covering Kids Back-to-School 2000 campaigns were featured by MSNBC and CBS Health Watch. (Note: the web links are no longer available).
2. What Did Welfare Reform Do to Medicaid in Your State?
This Families USA toolkit helps health advocates develop state strategies and campaigns to address problems that are leading to Medicaid declines or illegal Medicaid practices at the state level.
3. HCFA Releases CHIP 1115 Waiver Guidelines
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has released guidelines to all state officials describing what types of proposals they will consider from states that seek to improve their State Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). The guidelines assert that while states have flexibility in designing CHIP, the section 1115 demonstration projects allow for states to develop new and innovative ways to enroll children in CHIP and keep them enrolled, promote participation in CHIP and Medicaid, and improve the quality of care enrollees receive.
To comply with these guidelines, states must meet the following requirements:
* CHIP must have been in operation for at least one year;
* A state must be covering children up to age 19 with family income up to at least 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL); and
* A state must demonstrate that its application and redetermination process for State CHIP and Medicaid promote enrollment and retention of eligible children;
Some possible innovations that states are considering enacting include:
* Covering pregnant women with family income above 185 percent of the FPL (for states that have already covered pregnant women up to 185 percent of the FPL through Medicaid at the regular matching rate);
* Covering uninsured parents of State CHIP and Medicaid-enrolled children; and
* New public health initiatives to target all or some specific groups of uninsured children.
4. New CDF Report Highlights States' Progress in Implementing CHIP
10 August 2000, Washington, D.C.
The Children's Defense Fund released a report entitled "All Over the Map: A Progress Report on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)." The report ranks state progress in implementing CHIP; reviews recent trends in private and public insurance coverage; and makes recommendations about family friendly enrollment, improved outreach, provider reimbursement rates, information technology, and coverage for parents.
The top ten states were all over the map geographically as well as in program features. Six top-ranked programs are Medicaid expansions, three have combination plans, and one has a separate state program. The only three states that spent all of their FY 98 allotment during the period studied, Alaska, Massachusetts, and New York, are ranked #1, 2, and 4, respectively. Nine out of the ten lowest-ranked states lost ground in coverage.
5. Is The Stigma of Welfare a Barrier to Enrolling?
A new report has been released gauging how the stigma of public assistance programs actually affects whether or not people apply for programs such as Medicaid. The study, conducted by The Center for Health Services Research and Policy at George Washington University, finds that:
Stigma, defined by the authors as how people will feel about themselves or what they perceive others will think about them for enrolling in Medicaid, is not a barrier to Medicaid enrollment. However, stigma-related barriers that do exist are a result of how people are treated during the Medicaid application process and by health care providers. More than 80% of respondents reported at least one other type of problem associated with participating in Medicaid, including not knowing how to apply, feeling the application is long and complicated, needing a translator, and lacking transportation.
Hispanic respondents were more than three times as likely to be eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid compared to White respondents.
To address enrollment barriers, the researchers make the following recommendations to state authorities:
* Place increased emphasis on outstationed enrollment at health centers, community clinics, hospitals, and other alternate locations such as schools and child care centers,
* Minimize welfare office encounters as part of the Medicaid application process,
* Eliminate all unnecessary questions during the application process, and
* Shorten the application form.
You can download the full report in PDF format on the GWU web site at: Medicaid, SCHIP, and Medicare Publications.
Source: Stuber, Jennifer, et al., "Beyond Stigma: What Barriers Actually Affect the Decisions of Low-Income Families to Enroll in Medicaid?" July 2000.
6. Conducting Children's Health Insurance Outreach in African American Communities
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that reaching out to African American families can help reduce disparities in health care coverage, if the outreach builds on the strengths of African American culture.
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